"MAKERS  OF  AMERICA" 


COTTON    MATHER 


€i)t  Ipuritan  priest 


BARRETT    WENDELL 


NEW  YORK 
DODD,   Mx    .O,  AND    COMPANY 


Publishers 


'.fV 


Copyright^  1891, 
By  Dodd,  Mead,  and  Co. 


All  rights  reserved. 


^P^KELs 


tKntbersttg  ^xtss : 
John  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambridge. 


UNIVERSITY 


OF 
^LIFO? 


f/^^k:t^i<?'  a^i^QSi^'if/l'/, 


i5-tatis  SiislXV,  Ml>c6(XVII^ 


/ut/u> 


NOTE. 

Whoever  finds  anything  in  this  little  book 
must  share  my  gratitude  to  the  possessors 
of  Cotton  Mather's  manuscripts,  who  have  so 
generously  put  them  at  my  disposal.  To  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  the  American 
Antiquarian  Society,  the  Congregational  Library, 
and  Mrs.  Skinner  of  Chicago,  our  most  earnest 
thanks  are  due. 

I  heartily  regret  that  I  have  not  been  per- 
mitted to  examine  the  exhaustive  life  of  Cotton 
Mather  left  in  manuscript  by  the  late  Rev.  Mr. 
Marvin,  of  Lancaster,  Massachusetts. 


101856 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/cottonmatherpuriOOwendrich 


CONTENTS. 


Pagb 

I.    Introduction i 

II.    The    Puritan    Fathers  :    Cotton    and 

Mather 4 

III.  The  Youth  of  Cotton  Mather    ...      21 

IV.  The  Fall  of  the  Charter.  —  The  Be- 

ginning  OF   Cotton   Mather's   Min- 
istry   39 

V.    The  Revolution  of  1689  and  the  New 

Charter 70 

VI.    Witchcraft 88 

VII.    The  End  of  Sir  William  Phipps  .    .    .    124 

VIII.    Harvard  College 130 

IX.    Cotton    Mather's    Private  Life  until 

THE  Death  of  his  Wife 154 

X.  Cotton  Mather's  Private  Life.  —  His 
Second  Marriage.— Charter  of  Har- 
vard College.— Quarrel  with  Joseph 

Dudley 199 

XL    Cotton  Mather's  Private  Life  to  the 

Death  of  his  Second  Wife  ....    228 
XII.    Cotton   Mather's  Private  Life.  —  His 

Third  Marriage 249 


vi  CONTENTS, 

Pagb 

XIII.  Inoculation 273 

XIV.  The  Death  of  Increase  Mather     .    .  282 
XV.  The  Last  Diary  of  Cotton  Mather   .  288 

XVI.  The  Last  Days  of  Cotton  Mather     .  297 

XVI I.  Cotton  Mather,  the  Puritan  Priest  .  300 


Authorities 309 

Index 311 


UF  THS. 

UNIVERSITY 

or 


COTTON    MATMER. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Two  hundred  years  ago  there  was  living  in  Boston  a 
man  whose  name  is  still  remembered.  Few  nowadays 
know  why  we  have  heard  of  Cotton  Mather ;  but  even 
in  this  last  decade  of  the  nineteenth  century  few 
Yankees  do  not  know  his  name.  _My  object  is  to  tell 

what  manner  nf  pi^n  V>p  ^pt^^  ^)^pt  mnnnpr  nf  wnrlH  ]^P 

lived  in,  why — with  all  the  oddities  and  failings  that 
are  to  us  so  grotesque  —  he  seems  well  worth  remem- 
Jeering.  For  this  Cotton  Mather  was  of  those  who  take 
life  in  earnest ;  and  the  life  he  took  in  earnest  was, 
throughout  the  sixty- five  years  he  passed  on  earth,  the 
life  of  that  New  England  which  we  who  come  of  it  like 
to  believe  the  source  of  what  is  best  in  our  own  Amer- 
ica. If,  for  a  while,  we  can  make  ourselves  see  life  as 
he  saw  it,  we  shall  have  done  what  I  have  in  view. 

Cotton  Mather's  diaries,  together  with  his  published 
works,  express  his  views  of  life  with  rare  completeness. 
So  far  as  may  be,  then,  I  shall  tell  his  story  in  his  own 
words.  In  so  doing,  I  shall  doubtless  expose  myself  to 
little  less  than  the  contempt  of  many  serious  students  of 
Colonial  history.  The  man's  veracity  has  been  seriously 
1 


2  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

\  /P  questioned ;  and  one  can  see  why.     In  the  first  place, 
Qie  was  the  champion  of  a  cause  that,  even  in  his  own 
,^  .time,  was  l^opejlessly  lost,  —  the  cause  of  the  old  hie- 
'  ^^rchyVf  Kjs'vt  SEjfigland,  that  once  hoped  to  govern  the 
,  AYas^ejrn  w/Drld  in  accordance  with  no  laws  but  those  of 
^'CJod'  <and  .Calvin '5  arid  not  the  least  tragic  fate  of  men 
whose  cause  is  hopelessly  lost  is  that  victorious  posterity 
rarely  appreciates  how  they   can   have   been   honest. 
Again,  Cotton  Mather  was  a  priest,  and  in  this  world 
priests   are   generally  accepted  in  one  of  two  ways : 
whoever  will  not  bow  to  their  authority  is  lost  in  horror 
of  their  priestcraft.     Finally,  Cotton  Mather  was  a  man 
of  such  passion  as  rarely  worries  a  human  being  from 
the  cradle  to  the  grave :  throughout  his  life  his  emo- 
tions swegt  him_into  ecstasies  which  he  found  sometimes 
divine^    sometimes   diabolicalj    and,   having   a   ready 
tongue  and  pen,  he  gave  utterance  to  many  hasty  things 
not  always   consistent  with   fact  or  with  each  other. 
Wherefore   such   of  posterity   as   have  not  loved  his 
memory  have  inclined  now  and  again  to  call  him  by 
a  name  he  would  probably  have  been  the  first  to  use  in 
their  place,  —  a  very  great  liar. 

To  me  he  seems  otherwise.  The  better  I  know  him, 
the  more  firmly  I  believe  that  from  beginning  to  end 
he  meant  to  be  honest.  Beyond  doubt,  like  emotional 
people  about  us/—  abolitionists,  nationalists,  what  not, 
—  he  often  saw  things  not  as  they  were  but  as  he  would 
have  had  them.  What  counted  for  him  was  God's 
own  work,  what  counted  against  him  the  DeviFs ;  and 
God's  work;  of  course^  was  all  good,  and  the  Devjrs 

refreshinglv  free  from  ,any  redeeming  trait. But .I.do 

not  believe^t^h^t:  he  often  wmta-Qr- j;pQke-a  word-that  he 


INTRODUCTION.  3 

disbelieved  when  it  was  written  or  spoken.     He  writes 
as  follows  in  the  Magnalia :  — 

"  I  have  not  commended  any  person,  but  when  I  have 
really  judged,  not  only  that  he  deserved  it,  but  also  that  it 
would  be  a  benefit  unto  posterity  to  know  wherein  he  de- 
served it ;  .  .  .  yett  I  have  left  unmentioned  some  cen- 
surable occurrences  in  the  story  of  our  Colonies,  as  things 
no  less  unuseful  than  improper  to  be  raised  out  of  the 
grave,  wherein  Oblivion  hath  now  buried  them." 

If  we  cannot  accept  him,  then,  as  a  veracious  his- 
torian of  all  that  went  on  before  him,  it  is  rather  that 
his  eyes  were  blinded  than  that  his  pen  put  down  what 
he  knew  was  error.  And  we  may  accept  him,  I  believe 
more  and  more,  as  a  singularly  veracious  historian  of 
himself,  who  shows  us  year  after  year  not  exactly  what 
things  were,  but  exactly  what  he  felt  God  bade  him 
believe  them. 

In  the  chapters  that  follow,  I  shall  try  first  to  give 
some  account  of  the  race  he  sprang  from,  and  of  the 
place  and  the  period  in  which  he  found  himself.  Then 
I  shall  try  to  tell,  from  his  own  point  of  view,  the  story 
of  his  own  career.  And  I  shall  be  sorry  if  I  do  not  make 
it  seem  that  there  is  still  good  ground  for  believing  that 
it  was  a  good  man  they  buried  on  Copp*s  Hill  one 
February  day  in  the  year  1728. 


II. 

The  Puritan  Fathers  :   Cotton  and  Mather. 
1585-1662. 

To  understand  the  founders  of  New  England  we 
must  recall  more  than  tradition  has  preserved.  All 
the  world  knows  that  to  a  rare  degree  the  settlers  of 
Plymouth  and  of  Massachusetts  alike  were  men  of 
dia^acter.  Cromwell  himself  is  no  bad  type  of  them. 
Among  the  descendants  of  one  of  the  emigrant  minis- 
ters, indeed,  a  tradition  is  preserved  that  Cromwell,  at 
the  height  of  his  power,  once  said  that  he  had  been 
more  afraid  of  their  ancestor  at  football  than  of 
"  armies  in  the  field."  One  may  almost  say  that  all 
the  notables  during  the  first  generation  of  New  Eng- 
land were  men  who  might  have  played  at  football  with 
Cromwell,  and  who,  if  they  had,  would  probably  have 
kept  his  hands  full.  All  the  world  knows,  too,  that 
these  men  came  hither  to  found  a  state  where  for  once 
the  laws  of  God  and  of  man  should  coincide.  But  in 
the  course  of  two  centuries  the  world  has  forgotten  that 
their  conception  of  the  laws  of  God  was  very  different 
from  what  prevails  nowadays.  Yet  to  understand  the 
Puritans  at  all  we  must  in  a  general  way  understand 
their  creed. 

To  the  time  of  the  Reformation,  England,  with  the 
rest  of  Europe,  had  virtually  accepted  the  doctrines  of 


THE  PURITAN  FATHERS,  5 

Christianity  as  expounded  by  the  Catholic  Church. 
The  Reformation  and  the  Renaissance,  affecting  Eng- 
land together,  produced  there  a  new  state  of  religious 
thought,  which  was  greatly  fostered  by  the  political 
accidents  of  the  time.  Under  Queen  Elizabeth  the 
first  duty  of  Englishmen  was  to  fight  Spain  \  and  Spain 
was  the  head  and  front  of  the  powers  that  professed 
allegiance  to  the  Church  of  Rome.  Protestantism,  in 
that  sense  of  the  word  which  means  repudiation  of 
Rome,  was  tlie  spirit  that  must  be  nurtured.  Bibles  in 
the  English  language  were  chained  to  public  reading- 
desks  in  the  churches ;  so  were  great  folios  of  Foxe's 
Book  of  Martyrs :  whoever  could  read  might  go  and 
read  the  truth.  The  truth  they  read  was  not  favor- 
able to  ecclesiastical  authority.  When  the  danger  of 
Spanish  aggression  was  passed,  the  Church  of  England 
found  that  in  fostering  patriotic  Protestantism  it  had 
permanently  strengthened  a  class  of  people  not  free- 
thinking  enough  to  discard  religious  authority,  but 
firmly  resolved  to  accept  no  other  authority  than  Scrip- 
ture. The  Scriptural  creed  thus  developed  in  Eng- 
land, but  formulated  most  definitely  at  Geneva,  was  the 
creed  of  the  founders  of  New  England. 

Stripped  of  subtlety  and  technicality,  it  may  perhaps 
be  stated  as  follows  :  ^  In  the  beginning  God  created 
man,  responsible  to  Him,  with  perfect  freedom  of  will. 
Adam,  in  the  fall,  exerted  his  will  in  opposition  to  the 
will  of  God  :  thereby  Adam  and  all  his  posterity  mer- 
ited eternal  punishment.  As  a  mark  of  that  punish- 
ment they  lost  the  power  of  exerting  the  will  in 
harmony  with  the  will  of   God,  without  losing  their 

1  Magnalia,  V.  I. 


6  COTTON  MATHER, 

hereditary  responsibility  to  Him.  But  God,  in  His 
infinite  mercy,  was  pleased  to  mitigate  His  justice. 
Through  the  mediation  of  Christ,  certain  human  beings, 
chosen  at  God's  pleasure,  might  be  relieved  of  the  just 
penalty  of  sin,  and  received  into  everlasting  salvation. 
These  were  the  elec|,:  none  others  could  be  saved, 
nor  could  any  acts  of  the  elect  impair  their  salvation. 
Now  there  were  no  outward  and  visible  marks  by  which 
'the  elect  might  be  known :  there  was  a  fair  chance, 
then,  that  any  human  being  to  whom  the  Gospel  was 
brought  might  be  of  the  number.  The  thing  that  most 
vitally  concerned  every  man,  then,  was  to  discover 
whether  he  were  elect,  and  so  free  from  the  just  penalty 
of  sin,  ancestral  and  personal.  The  test  of  election 
was  ability  to  exert  the  will  in  true  harmony  with  the 
will  of  God,  —  a  proof  of  emancipation  from  the  he- 
reditary curse  of  the  children  of  Adam :  whoever 
could  ever  do  right,  and  want  to,  had  a  fair  ground  for 
hope  that  he  should  be  saved.  But  even  the  elect  were 
infected  with  the  hereditary  sin  of  humanity ;  and,  be- 
sides, no  wile  of  the  Devil  was  more  frequent  than  that 
,  which  deceived  men  into  believing  themselves  regener- 
^  ate  when  in  truth  they  were  not.  The  task  of  assuring 
one's  self  of  election,  then,  could  end  only  with  life,  — 
a  life  of  passionate  aspirations,  ecstatic  enthusiasms, 
profound  discouragements.  Above  all,  men  must  never 
L.  forget  that  the  true  will  of  God  was  revealed,  directly 
or  by  implication,  only  and  wholly  in  Scripture :  in- 
cessant study  of  Scripture,  then,  was  the  sole  mean§  by 
which  any  man  could  assure  himself  that  his  will  was 
really  exerting  itself,  through  the  mediatory  power  of 
Christ,  in  true  harmony  with  the  will  of  Grod. 


THE  PURITAN  FATHERS,  7 

Such,  if  I  read  the  Magnalia  aright,  was  the  creed 
of  the  fathers  of  New"~EhgIandj  at  least  as  'Cotton 
Mather  understood  it.  To  live  in  accordance  with 
tliis,  they  crossed  the  Atlantic./'  To  lead  unmolested 
their  lives  in  accordance  with  this,  they  confined  the 
franchise  to  actual  communicants,  and  dealt  so  sum- 
marily with  whoever  proclaimed  other  opinions,  — 
Mrs.  Hutchinson,  Roger  Williams,  and  the  crazy  fanat- 
ics whom  they  called  Quakers.  To  preserve  this  unal- 
tered, they  founded  Harvard  College.  In  obedience 
to  the  implications  of  this,  they  rated  far  above  other 
men  the  official  ministers  of  the  Gospel. 

Cotton  Mather  sprang  from  a  race  of  these  minis- 
ters. His  very  name  combined  two  of  those  most 
distinguished  among  the  emigrant  clergy  of  Massa- 
chusetts. In  his  chief  book,  the  Magnalia,  he  has 
written  the  lives  of  his  grandparents.  And  these 
lives,  combining  [the  historical  and  the  domestic  tra- 
ditions amid  which  he  grew  to  manhood,  deserve  our 
attention,  if  we  would  understand  the  life  4ie  strove  to 
live  throughout  in  accordance  with  these  traditions. 

Among  the  ministers  who  came  from  England  in  the 
full  flush  of  their  powers,  none  was  more  eminent  than 
John  Cotton.^  Bom  at  the  town  of  Derby  in  1585, 
the  son  of  a  pious  and  industrious  lawyer,  he  was  sent 
at  the  age  of  thirteen  to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 
Early  chosen  a  fellow  of  Emanuel,  he  distinguished 
himself  by 

"an  University  sermon,  wherein,  aiming  more  to  preach 
j^^than  Christ,  he  used  such  florid  strains,  as  extremely 
recommended  him  unto  the  most,  who  relished  the  wisdom 
of  words  above  the  words  of  wisdom :  though  the  pompous 
1  Magualia,  III.  I.  i. 


8  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

eloquence  of  that  sermon  afterwards  gave  such  a  distaste 
unto  his  own  renewed  soul,  that  with  a  sacred  indignation 
he  threw  his  notes  into  the  fire.'*  For  at  this  time,  "  such 
was  the  secret  enmity  &  prejudice  of  an  unregenerate  soul 
against  real  holiness,  ^z  such  the  lormenl  which  our  Lord's 
witnesses  give  to  the  consciences  of  the  earthly-minded, 
that  when  he  heard  the  bell  toll  for  the  funeral  of  Mr.  Per- 
kins, his  mind  secretly  rejoiced  in  his  deHverance  from  that 
powerful  ministry,  by  which  his  conscience  had  been  so  oft 
beleagured:  the  remembrance  of  which  thing  afterwards 
did  break  his  heart  exceedingly."  Converted  by  the  preach- 
ing of  a  certain  Dr.  Sibs,  he  signalized  his  regeneration  by 
preaching  at  St.  Maries  a  sermon  so  plain  in  substance  and 
diction  that  "  the  vain  wits  of  the  University  .  .  .  discov- 
ered their  vexation  ...  by  their  not  humming}  as  ac- 
cording to  their  sinful  &  absurd  custom  they  had  formerly 
done.  .  .  .  Nevertheless,  the  satisfaction  which  he  enjoyed 
in  his  own  faithful  soul,  abundantly  compensated  unto  him 
the  loss  of  any  human  favour  or  honour." 

Shortly  after  this  he  was  invited  to  become  the  min- 
ister of  Boston,  in  Lincolnshire,  where,  in  spite  of  the 
Bishop's  opposition,  he  was  settled  at  the  celebrated 
church  of  St.  Botolph  for  twenty  years.  Throughout 
this  period  his  non- conformity  steadily  increased :  his 
conscience  bade  him  discard  every  rite  and  vestment 
for  which  he  could  not  find  authority  in  Scripture.  At 
length,  neither  his  learning,  nor  his  character,  nor  the 
moral  excellence  of  his  work,  nor  the  friends  he  had 
made  among  those  in  power,  could  save  him  from  the 
consequences  of  a  charge,  brought  by  "  a  debauched 
fellow  in  the  town,"  that  the  magistrates  under  his  cure 
did  not  kneel  at  the  sacrament.  The  debauched  fel- 
low, in  fulfilment  of  a  prediction  of  "the  renowned 
Mr.  John  Rogers  of  Dedham," 

1  Cf.  page  19. 


rilE  PURITAN  FATHERS.  9 

"  quickly  after  this,  died  of  the  plague^  under  an  hedge^  in 
Yorkshire  ;  and  it  was  a  long  time  ere  any  one  could  be 
found  tliat  would  bury  hira.     This  ''tis  to  turn  persecutor^ 

But  Cotton  was  driven  into  hiding. 

Doubtful  whether  to  remain  in  Boston,  preaching  in 
private,  he  consulted  an  elderly  divine,  who  gave  the 
opinion 

"  'That  the  removing  of  a  minister  was  like  the  draining 
of  a  fish-pond  :  the  good  fish  will  follow  the  water,  but  eels, 
&  other  baggage  fish,  will  stick  in  the  mud/  Which 
things,  when  Mr.  Cotton  heard,  he  was  not  a  little  con- 
firmed in  his  inclination  to  leave  the  land/' 

So  he  ultimately  came  to  New  England  in  a  ship 
which  brought  two  other  notable  ministers,  —  Hooker 
and  Stone.  It  was  pleasantly  said  at  the  time  that  this 
ship  brought  New  England  "  three  great  necessities : 
Cotton  for  their  clothing.  Hooker  for  \^€\x  fishing,  and 
Stone  for  their  buihiing^  Among  them  the  three 
managed  to  solace  the  voyage  by  a  daily  sermon ;  and 
in  favorable  weather  by  three  sermons  a  day.  Hooker 
and  Stone  became  the  ministers  of  Hartford :  Cotton 
remained  in 

"  New-Boston,  which  in  a  few  years,  by  the  smile  of  God, 
.  .  .  came  to  exceed  Old  Boston  in  everything  that  renders 
a  town  considerable."  On  his  arrival  *'  he  found  the  whole 
country  in  a  perplexed  &  a  divided  state,  as  to  their  civil 
constitution^^ ',  and  being  requested  to  suggest  convenient 
laws  '*  from  the  laws  wherewith  God  j^overned  his  ancient 
people,"  he  recommended  among  other  things  "that  none 
should  be  electors,  nor  elected,  .  .  .  except  such  as  were 
visible  subjects  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  personally  confed- 
erated in  our  churches.  In  these  &  many  other  ways,  he 
propounded  unto  them  an  endeavour  after  a  theocracy,  as 
near  as  might  be,  to  that  which  was  the  glory  of  Israel." 


I o  COTTON  MA  THER. 

This  theocracy  came  near  getting  him  into  trouble. 
In  spite  of  the  passionate  defence  of  Cotton  Mather, 
there  is  little  room  for  doubt  that  he  was  almost  per- 
verted by  the  heresies  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson ;  but  he  re- 
traced his  steps  in  time,  learning  for  once  in  his  life  to 
conform. 

*'  Nineteen  years  &  odd  months  he  spent  in  this  place, 
doing  of  good  publickly  &  privately,  unto  all  sorts  of  men,  as 
it  became  *  a  good  man  full  of  faith,  &  of  the  Holy  Ghost.' 
Here  in  an  expository  way,  he  went  over  the  Old  Testament 
once,  &  a  second  time  as  far  as  the  thirtieth  chapter  of 
Isaiah ;  &  the  whole  New  Testament  once,  &  a  second  time 
as  far  as  the  eleventh  chapter  to  the  Hebrews.  Upon  the 
Lords-days  &  lecture-days,  he  preached  thorow  the  Acts  of 
the  Apostles ;  the  prophesies  of  Haggai  &  Zechariah,  the 
books  of  Ezra,  the  Revelation,  Ecclesiastes,  Canticles, 
second  &  third  Episdes  of  John,  the  Epistle  to  Titus,  both 
Epistles  to  Timothy,  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans,  with  innu- 
merable other  scriptures  on  incidental  occasions." 

At  last,  in  1652,  going  to  preach  at  Cambridge,  he 
caught  cold ;  his  voice  failed  in  the  midst  of  his  sermon. 
It  had  been 

"his  declared  wish  *  That  he  might  not  outlive  his  work ! ' 
.  .  .  he  had  rather  ^^^<?^^ than //V^^^?^^.  .  .  .  On  the  eigh- 
teenth of  November  he  took  in  course,  for  his  text,  the  four 
last  verses  of  the  second  Epistle  of  Timothy,^  giving  this 
reason  for  his  insisting  on  so  many  verses  at  once,  *  Because 
else  (he  said)  I  shall  not  live  to  make  an  end  of  this  Epistle ' ; 

1  "  Salute  Prisca  and  Aquila,  and  the  household  of  Onesiph- 
orus.  Erastus  abode  at  Corinth  :  but  Trophimus  have  I  left  at 
Miletum  sick.  Do  thy  diligence  to  come  before  winter.  Eubulus 
greeteth  thee,  and  Pudens,  and  Linus,  and  Claudia,  and  all  the 
brethren.  The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  be  with  thy  spirit.  Grace.be 
with  you.     Amen." 


THE  PURITAN  FATHERS.  II 

but  he  chiefly  insisted  on  those  words,  *  Grace  be  with  you 
alt'  Upon  the  Lord's  day  following  he  preached  his  last 
sermon  on  Joh.  i.  14,^  about  that  *gloryof  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,'  from  iht  faith  to  the  sight  whereof  he  was  now 
hastening." 

In  a  day  of  secret  humiliation  and  prayer,  he  took 
solemn  leave  of  "  that  sft/dy  which  had  been  perfumed 
with  many  such  days  before."  As  he  lay  sick,  friends 
came  to  take  leave  of  him. 

"  When  his  colleague,  Mr.  Wilson,  took  his  leave  .  .  . 
with  a  wish  that  God  would  lift  up  the  Might  of  his  counte- 
nance' upon  him,  he  instantly  replied,  *God  hath  done  it 
already,  brother ! '  He  then  called  for  his  children,  with 
whom  he  left  the  gracious  covenant  of  God,  as  their  never- 
failing  portion  :  &  now  desired  that  he  might  be  left  private 
the  rest  of  his  minutes,  for  the  more  freedom  of  his  applica- 
tions unto  the  Lord.  So  lying  speechless  a  few  hours,  he 
breathed  his  blessed  soul  into  the  hands  of  his  heavenly 
Lord,  on  the  twenty-third  of  December,  1652,  entring  on 
the  sixty-eighth  year  of  his  own  age  :  &  on  the  day — yea, 
at  the  hour  —  oi  his  constant  weekly  labours  in  the  lecture, 
wherein  he  had  been  so  long  serviceable,  even  to  all  the 
churches  of  New-England." 

"an  ijidefatigable  student,"  who  "judged  ordinarily  that 
more  beneht  was  ol|)t^med  .  .  .  l)y  conversing  with  iW- (fc-ad 
fin  boo/^^n  witn  the  lifhu  [in  A/ZZ-j-].  .  .  .  He  was  an 
^rly  riser,  taking  the  morning  for  the  Muses;  &  in  his  lat- 
ter days  forbearing  a  supper,  he  turned  his  former  supping 
time  into  a  reading,  a  thinking,  a  praying-time.  Twelve 
hours   a  day  he  commonly  studied,  &  would   call    that  a 

^  "  And  the  Word  was  made  flesh,  and  dwelt  among  us,  (and 
we  beheld  his  glory,  the  glory  as  of  the  only  begotten  of  the 
Father,)  full  of  grace  and  truth." 


1 2  CO  TTON  MA  THER, 

scholar's  dayP  He  read,  wrote,  and  spoke  Hebrew, 
Greek,  and  Latin.  **  For  his  logic  he  was  completely  fur- 
nished therewith  to  encounter  the  subtilest  adversary  of 
the  truth."  As  for  theology,  even  his  "incomparable 
modesty"  could  not  prevent  his  telling  a  private  friend, 
"  That  he  knew  not  of  any  difficult  place  in  all  the  whole 
Bible,  which  he  had  not  weighed,  some  what  unto  satis- 
faction. .  .  .  And  being  asked,  why  in  his  latter  days  he 
indulged  nocturnal  studies  more  than  formerly,  he  pleas- 
i  antly  replied,  '  Because  I  love  to  sweeten  my  mouth  with 
a  piece  of  Calvin  before  I  go  to  sleep.' " 

Two  or  three  anecdotes,  preserved  by  Cotton  Mather, 
show  that  he  had  a  vein  of  humour.     On  one  occasion, 

"  an  humourous  &  imperious  brother "  complained  to  him 
"that  his  ministry  was  become  generally  either  dark  or 
flat:  whereto  this  meek  man,  very  mildly  &  gravely,  made 
only  this  answer:  *Both,  brother,  it  may  be,  both :  let  me 
have  your  prayers  that  it  may  be  otherwise.' "  Again,  "  a 
company  of  vain,  wicked  men,  having  inflamed  their  blood 
in  a  tavern  at  Boston,  &  seeing  that  reverend,  meek,  &  holy 
minister  of  Christ  .  .  .  coming  along  the  street,  one  of  them 
tells  his  companion,  *  I  '11  go,'  saith  he,  *  &  put  a  trick  on 
old  Cotton.'  Down  he  goes,  &  crossing  his  way,  whispers 
these  words  into  his  ear :  *  Cotton,'  said  he,  *  thou  art  an 
old  fool.'  Mr.  Cotton  replied,  *I  confess  I  am  so:  the 
Lord  make  both  me  &  thee  wiser  than  we  are,  even  wise 
unto  salvation.'  "  One  can  see  why  "  the  keeper  of  the  inn 
where  he  did  use  to  lodge,  when  he  came  to  Derby,  would 
profanely  say  to  his  companions,  that  he  wished  Mr. 
Cotton  were  gone  out  of  his  house;  for  *he  was  not  able 
to  swear  while  that  man  was  under  his  roof.' " 

In  family  devotions  he  was  very  short,  accounting 
"that  it  was  a  thing  inconvenient  many  ways  to  be 


THE  PURITAN  FATHERS.  13 

tedious  in  family  duties."     But   his   Sabbath-keeping 
was  something  man'ellous. 

"The  Sabbath  he  began  the  evening  before:  &  I  sup- 
pose," adds  Cotton  Mather,  "  't  was  from  his  reason  and 
practice  that  the  Christians  of  New  England  have  gener- 
ally done  so  too.^  When  that  evening  arrived,  he  was  usu- 
ally larger  in  his  exposition  in  his  family  than  at  other 
times :  he  then  catechised  his  children  &  servants,  & 
prayed  with  them,  &  sang  a  psalm;  from  thence  he  retired 
unto  study  &  secret  prayer,  till  the  time  of  his  going  unto 
his  repose.  The  next  morning,  after  his  usual  family  wor- 
ship, he  betook  himself  to  the  devotion  of  his  retirements, 
&  so  unto  the  publick.  From  thence  towards  noon,  he 
repaired  again  to  the  like  devotions,  not  permitting  the 
interruption  of  any  other  dinner,  than  that  of  a  small 
repast  carried  up  unto  him.  Then  to  the  publick  once 
more ;  from  whence  returning,  his  first  work  was  closet- 
prayer,  then  prayer  with  repetitions  of  the  sermons  in  the 
family.  After  supper,  he  still  sang  a  psalm ;  which  he 
would  conclude  with  uplifted  eyes  &  hands,  uttering  this 
doxology  —  *  Blessed  be  God  in  Christ  our  Saviour  ! '  Last 
of  all,  just  before  his  going  to  sleep,  he  would  once  again 
go  into  his  prayerful  study,  &  there  briefly  recommend  all 
to  that  God,  whom  he  served  with  a  pure  conscience." 

Such  was  John  Cotton,  at  least  as  Cotton  Mather 
believed  him.  He  left  a  widow.  The  mothers  of 
New  England  were  not  fond  of  widowhood.  Before 
long,  she  became  the  second  wife  of  the  Reverend 
Richard  Mather,  minister  of  Dorchester. 

This  Richard  Mather^  was  born  in  Lancashire,  in 
1596.  His  parents,  though  in  reduced  circumstances? 
gave  him  a  liberal  education.  At  fifteen  he  went  as 
1  Cf.  page  43.  2  Magnalia,  III.  II.  xx. 


14  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

schoolmaster  to  Toxteth  Park,  near  Liverpool,  where 
the 

"  difference  between  his  own  walk  &  the  most  exact,  watch- 
ful, fruitful,  &  prayerful  conversation  of  some  in  the  family 
.  .  .  where  he  sojourned,  .  .  .  caused  many  sad  fears  to 
arise  in  his  own  soul  that  he  was  himself  out  of  the  way, 
.  .  .  But  .  .  .  about  the  eighteenth  year  of  his  age,  the 
good  Spirit  of  God  healed  his  broken  heart,  by  pouring 
thereinto  the  evangelical  consolations  of  *  His  great  & 
precious  promises.'  " 

A  little  later  he  went  to  Oxford ;  and  in  1618  he  re- 
turned  to  Toxteth  as  minister.  When  the  Bishop  of 
Chester  ordained  him,  the  prelate  startled  him  by  re- 
questing a  private  interview. 

**  Mr.  Mather  was  now  jealous  that  some  informations 
might  have  been  exhibited  against  him  for  his  Puritanism ; 
instead  of  which,  when  the  Bishop  had  him  alone,  what  he 
said  unto  him  was,  *  I  have  an  earnest  request  unto  you,  sir, 
&  you  must  not  deny  me  :  't  is  that  you  would  pray  for  me  ; 
for  I  know  (said  he)  the  prayers  of  men  that  fear  God 
will  avail  much  <&  you  I  believe  are  such  a  one.* " 

At  Toxteth  Richard  Mather  preached  fifteen  years. 
In  his  private  manuscripts  he  wrote  thus  of  the  trial  by 
which  he  was  finally  suspended  for  non-conformity :  — 

"  In  the  passages  of  that  day  I  have  this  to  bless  the 
name  of  God  for,  that  the  terrour  of  their  threatening  words, 
of  their  pursevants,  &  of  the  rest  of  their  pomp,  did  not 
terrifie  my  mind,  but  that  I  could  stand  before  them  with- 
out being  daunted  in  the  least  manner,  but  answered  for  my 
self  such  words  of  truth  &  soberness  as  the  Lord  put  into 
my  mouth,  not  being  afraid  of  their  faces  at  all :  which 
supporting  &  comforting  presence  of  the  Lord,  I  count  not 
much  less  mercy,  than  if  I  had  been  altogether  preserved 
out  of   their  hands."  —  "But    all    means,"   adds   Cotton 


THE  PURITAN  FATHERS,  15 

Mather,  **  used  afterwards  to  get  off  this  unhappy  suspen- 
sion were  ineffectual ;  for  when  the  visitors  had  been  in- 
formed that  he  had  been  a  ministeryf/*/^^^  years,  and,  all  that 
while  never  wore  a  surpliss,  one  of  them  swore,  *  It  had 
been  better  for  him  that  he  had  gotten  seven  bastards  ! '  *' 

Once  suspended,  his  thoughts  turned  to  New  Eng- 
land..   ^- 

**  He  drew  up  some  arguments  for  his  removal  thither, 
which  arguments  were,  indeed,  the  very  reasons  that  moved 
the  first  fathers  of  New-England  unto  that  unparellelled 
undertaking  of  transporting  their  families  with  themselves, 
over  the  Atlantic  ocean: 

I.     A  removal  from  a  corrupt  church  to  2i  purer.    "^ 

II.  A  refiiWal  from  a  place  where  the  truth  &  profes- 
sors of  2L,?r^  ^rsecutcd^  unto  a  place  of  more  quiet  & 
safety, 

III.  A  removal  from  a  place  where  all  the  ordinances 
of  God  cannot  be  enjoyed,  unto  a  place  where  they  may. 

IV.  A  removal  from  a  church  where  the  discipline  of 
the  Lord  Jesus  Girist  is  wanting,  unto  a  church  where  ' 
may  be  practised. 

V.  A  removal  froi2_aj?l3Ce,  whete.the jninisters  of  God 
are  unjustly  inhibited  from  the  execution  of  their  functions,* 
to  a  place  where  they  may  more  freely  execute  the  same. 

VI.  A  removal  from  a  place,  where  there  are  fearful 
signs  of  desolation^  to  a  place  where  one  may  have  well 
grounded  hope  of  God's  protection.** 

So  in  1635,  ^^^^r  ^  stormy  voyage,  he  came  to  Bos- 
ton. The  first  church  founded  in  Dorchester  had 
followed  its  minister  to  Connecticut.  Within  a  year, 
Richard  Mather  had  gathered  there  a  new  church, 
where 

**  he  continued,  a  blessing  unto  all  the  churches  in  this  wil- 
derness until  his  dying  day,  even  for  near  upon  four  and 


l6  j>  y.  COTTON  MATHER, 

thirty  years  together.  .  .  He  never  changed  his  habitation 
after  this  till  he  went  unto  the  *  house  eternal  in  the  heav- 
ens ' ;  albeit  his  old  people  of  Toxteth  vehemently  solicited 
his  return  unto  them  when  the  troublesome  Hierarchy  in 
England  was  deposed." 

In  1669  ^^  ^i^d  of  the  stone,  "wherein,  accord- 
ing to  Solomon's  expression  of  it,  'the  wheel  was 
broken  at  tlte  cistern.'  " 

**  As  he  judged  that  a  preacher  of  the  gospel  should  he^ 
he  was  a.  very  hard  stude7it :  yea,  so  intent  was  he  upon  his 
beloved  studies,  that  the  morning  before  he  died,  he  im- 
portuned the  friends  that  watched  with  him  to  help  him  into 
the  room,  where  he  thought  his  usual  works  &  books  ex- 
pected him  ;  to  satisfie  his  importunity  they  began  to  lead 
him  thither ;  but  finding  himself  unable  to  get  out  of  his 
lodging-room,  he  said,  *  I  see  I  am  not  able  ;  I  have  not 
been  in  my  study  several  days  ;  &  is  it  not  a  lamentable 
thing,  that  I  should  lose  so  much  time  ? ' " 

His  temperament  was  sombre,  self-conscious. 

**He  was  for  some  years  exercised  with  .  .  .  uncertain- 
ties about  his  everlasting  happiness.  ...  In  those  dark 
hours  ...  a  gi,orious  light  rose  unto  him  .  .  .  which  I 
find  in  his  private  papers  thus  expressed :  *  My  heart  re- 
lented with  tears  at  this  prayer,  that  God  would  not  deny 
me  an  heart  to  bless  him,  &  not  blaspheme  him,  that  is  so 
holy,  just,  and  good ;  though  I  should  be  excluded  from 
his  presence,  &  go  down  into  everlasting  darkness  &  dis- 
comfort.' "  On  his  death-bed,  "  though  he  lay  in  a  mortal 
extremity  of  pain,  he  never  shrieked,  he  rarely  groaned, 
with  it;  &  when  he  was  able,  he  took  delight  in  reading 
Dr.  Goodwin's  discourse  about  patience,  in  which  book  he 
read  until  the  very  day  of  his  death.  When  they  asked 
*  how  he  did  ?'  his  usual  answer  was,  *  Far  from  well,  yet 
far  better  than  mine  iniquities  deserve.'" 


THE  PURITAN  FATHERS,  1 7 

His  last  recorded  words  were  a  solemn  charge  to  his 
son  as  to  who  might  properly  be  admitted  to  baptism, 
—  a  question  then  seriously  disturbing  the  churches  of 
New  England.  The  only  bright  touch  in  Cotton  Math- 
er's picture  of  him  is  that  which  tells  how,  one  Satur- 
day evening  in  1661,  two  of  his  sons,  both  ministers, 
arrived  at  about  the  same  time,  —  one  from  England, 
one  from 

"  a  Remote  place  where  he  was  now  Stationed  in  the  Coun- 
try ;  And  the  Comforted  Old  Patriarch,  sat  shining  like 
the  Sun  in  Gemini^  &  hearing  his  two  Sons,  in  his  own 
Pulpit  entertain  the  People  of  GOD,  with  Performances, 
that  made  all  People  Proclaim  him,  An  Happy  Father."^ 

Richard  Mather's  first  wife^  was 

**  Mrs.  Katharine  Holt;  a  Gentlewoman  Honourable  for 
her  Descent ;  but  much  more  so,  for  her  Vertue.  .  .  .  She 
sometimes  told  her  Son,  while  he  was  yet  scarce  more  than 
an  Infant^  but  very  much  her  Dariini^,  That  she  desired  of 
the  Glorious  GOD  only  two  things  on  his  behalf;  the  one 
was.  The  Grace  to  Fear  &  Love  GOD;  the  other  was,  the 
Learning  that  might  Accomplish  him  to  do  Service  for 
GOD.  .  .  .  Among  her  Instructions,  it  is  to  be  ^^w^w/5r^^ 
that  she  mightily  inculcated  the  Lesson  of  Diligence  upon 
him,  &  often  put  him  in  Mind  of  that  Word,  Seest  thou  a 
Man  Diligent  in  his  Business :  He  shall  STAND  BE- 
FORE KINGS.  ,  .  .  When  he  was  about  Fifteen  Years 
Old,  she  Died  Marvellously  Triumphing  over  the  Fear  of 
Deaths  which  thro'  all  her  Life  she  had  been  Afraid  of. 

*'  If  a  pretty  late  Abortion  might  have  Passed  for  a 
Births  it  might  have  been  said  of  this  Gentlewoman,  she 
was  a  Mother  of  Seven  Sons.  .  .  .  Four  proved  Useful,  & 
Faithful,  &  Famous  Ministers  of  the  Gospel.     Increase 

^  Parentator,  p.  23.  2  ibid,  pp.  3-5. 

2 


1 8  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

was  the  Youngest  of  them;  Whom  his  Father  called  so 
.  .  .  because  of  the  never-to-be-forgotten  Increase^  of  every 
sort,  wherewith  God  favoured  the  country,  about  the  time 
of  his  Nativity.  .  .  .  Had  he  been  Indisputably  a  seventh 
son^  yet  he  would  not  have  Countenanced  the  Foolish, 
Profane,  Magical  Whimsey  of  the  silly  People  which  fur- 
nishes the  seveiith  Son^  with  I  know  not  what  uncommon 
Powers;  'T  was  among  the  Vulgar  Errors  always  derided 
with  him.      However,  we  shall  hear  of  Strange  Things 

done  by  him,  &  for  him.'* 
A*. 
^'      Bom  at  Dorchester  in  June,  1 639,  Increase  Mather,^ 

to  use  his  own  words, 

"  Swam  quietly  in  a  Stream  of  Impiety  &  Carnal  Security 
for  many  Years  together,  till  it  pleased  the  Lord  in  the  year 
1654,  in  Mercy  to  Visit  me  with  a  sore  Disease,  which  was 
Apprehended  to  be  the  Stone.'* 

The  serious  frame  of  mind  thus  induced  resulted  in 
his  conversion.  In  1656  he  took  his  first  degree  at 
Harvard  College, 

"  At  which  time  the  Praesident,*  who  was  deep  in  the  Dark 
Principles  with  which  the  Stagyrite  has  for  so  many  Ages 
Tyrannized  over  Human  Understanding,  upon  a  Dislike  of 
the  Ramcean  Strains  in  which  our  Young  Disputant  was 
carrying  on  his  Thesis,  would  have  cut  him  Short;  but  Mr. 
Mitchel  Publickly  Interposed,  Pergat,  Quceso,  nam  doctis- 
sime  disputat,^^^ 

In  1657, 

"  on  his  Birth-Day^  he  Preached  his  First  Sermon^  at  a 
Village  belonging  to  Dorchester.    And  on  the  next  Lord's- 

1  Throughout  my  account  of  Increase  Mather,  I  follow  Cot- 
ton Mather's  "  Parentator." 

2  Charles  Chauncy,  who  was  inclined  to  Baptist  heresies. 

8  "Let  him  go  on,  I  beg,  for  he  is  arguing  like  a  great 
scholar." 


THE  PURITAN  FATHERS.  1 9 

Day  he  Preached  in  his  Fathers  Pulpit,  .  .  .  When  the 
whole  Auditory  were  greatly  Affected  with  the  Light  & 
Flame,  in  which  the  Rare  Youth  Appeared  unto  them: 
Especially  was  his  Father  so,  who  could  scarce  Pronounce 
the  Blessing,  for  the  Tears  which  from  the  Blessing  he 
had  himself  now  so  Sensibly  Received,  he  was  thrown 

M^^  month  later,  young  Increase  Mather  sailed  for 
England,  whence  he  presently  went  to  Dublin,  where 
his  brother  Samuel  was  settled  as  a  minister.  The 
next  year  he  proceeded  Master  of  Arts  at  Trinity 
College,  where 

"  the  Scholars  were  so  Pleased  with  the  Wit  &  Sense  & 
Polite  Learning  brilliant  in  his  Exercises,  that  they  Pub- 
lickly  Hummed^  him ;  which  being  a  Complement  that  he 
had  never  heard  Paid  unto  any  one  before,  at  first  had  like 
to  have  given  too  much  Surprise  unto  him." 

Declining  a  fellowship,  he  preached  for  one  winter 
in  Devonshire ;  and  in  1659  became  chaplain  to  the 
garrison  of  Guernsey.  But  the  Restoration  was  upon 
him.  In  1660,  finding  that  he  must  "either  conform 
to  the  Revived  Superstitions  in  the  Church  of  England, 
or  leave  the  Island,"  he  gave  up  his  charge.  Refusing 
a  living  in  the  Established  Church,  disappointed  in  a 
chance  to  travel  on  the  Continent,  his  thoughts  turned 
homeward.  "  In  fine,  all  things  Conspired  for  the 
moving  of  the  Star,  to  illuminate  the  Western  Hsemi- 
sphere." 

In  June,  1 661,  he  sailed  from  Weymouth  ;  in  August 
he  came  to  his  "  comforted  old  patriarch  "  of  a  father 

1  Cf.  page  8.  A  capital  example  this  of  Cotton  Mather's 
*'  inconsistency.*' 


yfi 


20  COTTON  MATHER. 

at  Dorchester,  who  had  now  for  six  years  been  the 
husband  of  John  Cotton's  widow.  The  following  win- 
ter Increase  Mather  passed  in  preaching  alternately  for 
his  father  and  "  to  the  New  Church  in  the  North-part 
of  Boston."  In  the  course  of  the  year,  Mrs.  Mather's 
daughter,  Maria  Cotton,  conquered  his  affections. 

'  **0n  March  6,  1662,  he  Came  into  the  Married  State  ; 
Espousing  the  only  Daughter,  of  the  celebrated  Mr.  John 
Cotton  J  in  Honour  to  whom  he  did  .  .  ,  call  his  First- 
born son  by  the  Name  of  Cotton." 

Of  such  parentage,  whose  story  I  have  told  chiefly 
in  his  own  words.  Cotton  Mather  was  bom,  in  Boston, 
on  the  1 2th  of  February,  1662-3. 


III. 

The  Youth  of  Cotton  Mather. 
1662-1678. 

At  this  time  the  Plymouth  Colony  was  about  forty 
years  old,  the  Charter  of  Massachusetts  about  thirty. 
Their  story  has  been  told  again  and  again.  Founded 
shortly  before  Laud  became  Archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
the  Colonies  were  first  strengthened  by  such  emigration 
as  was  stimulated  by  the  persecutions  in  England,  and 
then  confirmed  in  their  strength  by  the  independent 
responsibility  thrust  upon  them  by  the  civil  wars,  which 
kept  the  attention  of  England  centred  on  herself. 
During  the  Commonwealth,  home  matters  were  too 
important  to  permit  much  attention  in  England  to 
subjects  beyond  the  Atlantic ;  for  the  rest,  these  pro- 
fessed a  faith  and  a  policy  not  very  different  from 
those  which  for  twelve  years  prevailed  in  the  mother 
country. 

What  that  faith  was,  we  have  seen;  and  in  some 
degree  what  that  policy  was,  too.  It  was  based  on  a 
hope  that  the  government  of  the  visible  world  might, 
by  the  grace  of  God,  be  brought  into  harmony  with  the 
system  by  which  God  governed  the  invisible.  At  the 
outset  the  Puritans  were  met  by  a  difficulty  they  never 
quite  realized.  The  government  of  God,  as  they  under- 
stood it,  was  the  reverse  of  democratic.     But  the  very 


1 


22  COTTON  MATHER. 

fact  that  drove  them  to  a  wilderness  for  the  found- 
ing of  their  system  was  the  assumption  at  home  of 
divinely  autocratic  power  by  kings  and  bishops  for 
whose  claims  they  could  find  no  authority  in  Scripture. 
On  Scripture  only  they  were  determined  to  rest ;  but 
who  should  interpret  Scripture?  "All  things  in  Scrip- 
ture," they  themselves  professed,  "are  not  alike  plain 
in  themselves,  nor  alike  clear  unto  all."  ^  Clearly  no 
bishops,  no  ecclesiastical  tradition,  could  do  their  busi- 
ness; they  must  fall  back  on  active  ministers  of  the 
Gospel.  But  whence  came  the  authority  of  these  min- 
isters, which  might  be  held  final?  Again,  only  from 
Scripture,  or  from  such  occasional  presences  of  God  as 
we  shall  see  revealing  themselves  in  the  ministrations 
of  the  Mathers.  And  who  should  designate  the  Scrip- 
turally  authorized  interpreters  of  the  Scripture  on  which 
all  authority  must  ultimately  rest?  Scripture,  unhap- 
pily, contained  no  prophetic  catalogue  of  its  proper 
exponents.  They  fell  back  on  the  visible  members  of 
churches,  on  those  of  themselves  whose  public  pro- 
fession of  religious  experience  had  proved,  as  far  as 
earthly  processes  could  prove,  their  regeneration.  The 
elect  of  God  became  the  electors  of  God's  chosen.  In 
other  words,  their  system  at  once  claimed  autocratic 
power,  temporal  and  spiritual,  and  yet  rested  its  claim 
on  something  remarkably  like  the  consent  of  the  gov- 
erned. They  strove  to  establish  a  thing  that  can  never 
exist,  —  a  Protestant  priesthood. 

The  democratic  spirit  implied  in  all  Protestantism,  in 
all  revolution,  was  greatly  strengthened  by  the  political 
circumstances  in  which  they  found  themselves.     Under 
1  Magnalia,  V*  I.  i.  vii. 


HIS   YOUTH.  23 

the  first_Charter  of  Massachusetts,  virtually  that  of  a 
tradmg  corporation,  the  freemen  elected  the  magis- 
trates. And  though  for  more  than  a  generation  the 
theocratic  principles  of  John  Cotton  prevailed,  and^  ^ 
none  were  freemen  but  the  members  of  churches,  there  ' 
was  neither  among  the  churches  nor  among  their  mem- 
s  that  heavenly  unanimity  which  alone  could  pre- 
vent voters  from  now  and  then  —  and  more  and  more 
—  voting  as  they  pleased.  "The  will  of  man,"  their 
creed  admitted,  "  is  made  perfectly  and  immutably  free 
to  good  alone  in  the  state  of  glory  only."  ^  In  the  first 
thirty  years  of  their  life  in  America,  they  theocratic  spirit  J 
was  strong  enough  to  establish  the  terms  of  the  fran- 
chise, to  banish  Roger  Williams  and  Mrs.  Hutchinson, 
to  hang  the  Quakers;  the  [democratic  fneanwhile  had 
established  and  maintained  civil  order,  and  had  been 
forced  by  the  presence  of  Indians  and  other  harassing 
neighbours  into  strengthening  demonstrations  of  mili- 
tary power,  as  well  as  into  that  Confederacy  of  New 
England  whose  memory  is  dear  to  lovers  of  Union. 
The  democratic  spirit,  I  take  it,  made  Sir  Henry  Vane 
Governor  in  1637;  a  year  or  two  later,  the  theocratic 
drove  him  in  disgust  from  the  Colony.  It  was  the 
growth  of  the  democratic  that  stopped  the  hanging  of 
Quakers  before  Cotton  Mather  was  born. 

In  1660,  Charles  II.  came  to  the  throne  of  his 
father.  Massachusetts  had  grown  unaccustomed  to 
paying  much  attention  to  what  went  on  in  England. 
She  sent  him  a  complimentary  address;  but  it  was 
more  than  a  year  before  she  was  brought  to  the  point 
of  officially  proclaiming  him  sovereign.     Theocracy  and 

1  Magnalia,  V.  I.  i.  ix. 


24  COTTON  MATHER. 

democracy,  priesthood  and  protestantism,  agreed  in 
profound  disinclination  to  be  meddled  with.  To- 
gether they  met  in  peaceable  but  dogged  resistance 
to  the  effort  of  royal  commissioners  to  assert  in  New 
England  a  power  superior  to  that  of  the  Charter.  In 
their  common  cause  their  mutual  antagonism  was  for- 
k  gotten.  -  What  is  more,  the  two  spirits  were  not  sharply 
distinguished  :  both  were  inherent  in  the  original  con- 
stitution of  the  Colonies.  Theoretically,  pretty  much 
everybody  believed  at  once  in  the  divine  authority  of 
the  clergy,  and  in  the  right  of  godly  men  to  say  who 
should  preach  to  them  and  who  govern  them. 

It  was  at  this  time  that  Cotton  Mather  came  into  the 
world.  Little  record  is  preserved  of  his  childhood ; 
but  he  was  of  a  temperament  at  once  so  sensitive  and 
60  precocious  that  we  must  consider  the  aspects  of  Hfe 
that  first  presented  themselves  to  him. 

For  above  a  year.  Increase  Mather  hesitated  to 
accept  the  charge  of  the  Second  Church  in  Boston, 
having 

"  some  Views  ...  of  greater  service  elsewhere.  At  last, 
the  Brethren  of  the  Church  kept  a  Day  of  Supplicatiofis 
unto  Him  who  has  all  Hearts  in  His  Hands,  to  pray  that 
GOD  would  Inchne  him  and  Perswade  him,  to  Accept  the 
Invitation  which  they  had  given  him.  From  This  Day,  he 
felt  another  Biass  on  his  mind,  and  soon  Complied  with  their 
Desires;  and  on  May  27,  1664,  he  did  with  a  great 
Solemnity,  wherein  his  Father  publickly  gave  him  his 
Charge,  Accept  the  Pastoral  Care  of  the  Flock ;  with 
which,  (Them  and  Their  Children,)  he  Continued  Serving 
the  Lord,  with  many  Tears  and  Temptations,  and  keeping 
back  nothing  that  was  Profitable  for  them,  for  more  than 
Threescore  Years  to^^ether." 


HIS   YOUTH.  25 

Early  in  his  work  he  was  assailed  by  Satanic  tempta- 
tions to  doubt  the  existence  of  God :  these  he  over- 
came, not  by  reasoning,  —  "  it  puts  too  much  Respect 
upon  a  Deznly  to  Argue  and  Parley  with  him,  on  a 
Point  which  the  Da^il  himself  Believes  and  Trejnbles 
at,''  —  but  by  "flat  contradiction,'*  fortified  by  the 
reflection  that,  since  some  of  his  prayers  had  been 
answered,  there  must  evidently  be  a  God  to  answer 
them.  Failing  in  this  direct  attack,  the  Devil  betook 
himself  to  the  hearts  of  the  parish,  which  he  so  hard- 
ened as  to  keep  Increase  Mather's  salary  for  some 
years  decidedly  below  his  expenses.  Amid  the  heavy 
debts  that  naturally  followed,  the  good  man  had  re- 
course to  prayer,  sometimes  tempered  with  thanksgiv- 
ings for  such  blessings  as  he  was  graciously  permitted 
to  enjoy.  After  a  while,  the  church  paid  him  well,  to 
the  very  end  of  his  life,  —  a  consummation  which  Cot- 
ton Mather  attributes  chiefly  to  these  prayers.  In  fact, 
the  form  which  the  answer  to  these  prayers  probably 
took  was  a  growing  and  well  grounded  conviction  on 
the  part  of  the  members  of  the  Second  Church  that  un- 
awares, in  calling  to  their  ministry  a  promising  young 
man,  they  had  secured  to  themselves  the  ablest  and  most 
eminent  minister  in  America. 

An  indefatigable  worker  he  seems  to  have  been.  His 
diary  records  devices  for  saving  and  employing  every 
moment,  and  for  maintaining  incessant  seriousness  of 
heart.  And  in  1669,  when  his  father  died,  and  his 
brother  Eleazar,  of  whose  death  he  had  supernatural 
warning,  he  broke  down.  The  mood  in  which,  some 
months  later,  he  recovered,  is  best  phrased  in  his  own 
diary,  for  the  nth  of  June,  1670  :  — 


26  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

"The  Threefold  Wish  of  the  Chief  of  Sinners.  I  Wish  } 
I  Wish/  I  Wish/  i.  That  I  may  do  some  Special  Ser- 
vices for  my  dear  God  in  Jesus  Christ  before  I  leave  this 
World.  2.  I  would  fain  Leave  Something  behind  me,  that 
may  be  doing  of  Good  upon  Earthy  after  I  shall  be  in 
Heaveji.  3.  After  I  have  finished  my  Doing  Work,  I 
would  fain  Suffer  for  the  Sake  of  my  dear  God,  and  for 
Jesus  Christ."  ^ 

In  1674,  "observing  the  Sins  of  the  Times,  &  there- 
with Discerning  the  Signs  of  the  Times,'  he  preached 
a  prophetic  sermon  on  the  text,  "  The  Day  of  Trouble 
is  near."  The  next  two  years  were  the  most  dread- 
ful in  the  history  of  New  England.  The  Colonies, 
which  since  the  discomfiture  of  the  royal  commission- 
ers had  been  disturbed  by  no  more  insidious  tests  of 
their  civil  strength  than  discussions  about  baptism, 
and  the  intrigues  concerning  the  presidency  of  Harvard 
College  that  broke  the  heart  of  Leonard  Hoar,  were 
plunged  into  the  horrors  of  King  Philip*s  war.  Palfrey 
tells  in  detail  the  story  of  that  helpless  struggle  of  the 
native  savages,  and  of  the  organized  military  power 
which  at  last  exterminated  them  with  no  foreign  aid. 
Sewall's  Diary  gives  glimpses  of  the  ghastly  news  of 
massacre  that  now  and  again  found  its  way  to  Boston. 
But  neither  Palfrey  nor  Bewail  emphasizes  the  senti- 
ments concerning  the  Indians  that  pervade  the  long 
accounts  of  the  struggle  which  form  an  interesting  part 
of  Cotton  Mather's  "  Magnalia."  In  the  view  of  the 
Puritans,  the  Indians  were  the  wretched  remnant  of  a 
race  seduced  to  the  Western  Hemisphere  by  the  Devil 
himself,  that  he  might  rule  them  undiotiirbed  by  the 

1  Cf.  page  47. 


HIS    YOUTH.  27 

rising  light  of  the  Gospel.  The  landing  of  the  Pilgrims 
was  an  invasion  of  the  Devil's  own  territory ;  the  mis- 
sionary work  of  Eliot  and  the  Mayhews  was  a  direct 
storming  of  his  strongholds,  almost  unprecedented  in 
his  experience.  The  outbreak  of  the  Indians  was  his 
natural  retort;  every  arrow,  every  bullet,  every  war- 
song  and  magic  chant,  of  the  expiring  natives  of  New 
England  was  a  missile  aimed  by  Satan  himself  against 
the  power  of  Christ.  The  laity  met  the  attack  with 
gunpowder;  the  clergy  were  no  less  active  with 
prayer.  To  which  should  be  attributed  the  final  vic- 
tory,—  a  victory  not  so  much  over  Philip  and  his 
followers  as  over  Philip's  Satanic  master,  —  opinions 
may  differ.  But  Increase  Mather  was  not  disposed 
to  undervalue  his  petitions  to  the  Lord :  his  estimate 
of  them  was  confirmed  by  a  singular  experience  in 
August,  1676. 

"  He  had  for  diverse  Lords-Days^''  writes  Cotton  Mather, 
**  made  the  Death  of  that  Miserable  King,  a  Petition  which 
in  his  Public  Prayers  he  somewhat  Enlarged  upon.  But 
on  one  Lords-Day  he  quite  forgot  it;  for  which  Forgetful- 
ness  I  well  Remember,  that  I  heard  him  wondring  at,  and 
Blaming  of,  himself  in  the  Evening.  However,  he  was 
more  Satisfied,  when  a  few  Hours  after,  there  came  to 
Town  the  Tidings,  That  before  That  Lords-Day,  the 
Thing  was  Accomplished.'' — *' I  will  not  Theologize," 
writes  Cotton  ^Lither  a  little  later,  *'much  less  will  I 
Philosophize,  upon  the  Original  and  Operation  of  those 
PrcBsagious  Impressions  about  Future  Events,  which  are 
often  Produced  in  Minds,  which  by  Piety  and  Purity 
and  Contemplation,  and  a  Pray  off  ul,  and  Careful  walk 
with  God,  are  made  more  susceptible  of  them.  I  am 
only  to  Observe  that  this  Holy  Man  of  God  was  no 
stranger  to  them." 


28  CO TTOJV  MA  THER. 

He  was  no  stranger,  either,  to  ecstasies  of  an  even 
more  mysterious  kind. 

*^  As  I  was  Praying,"  he  wrote  in  1672,  "  my  Heart  was 
exceedingly  Melted,  and  methoughts,  saw  God  before  my 
Eyes  in  an  Inexpressible  Manner,  so  that  I  was  Afraid  I 
should  have  fallen  into  a  Trance  in  my  Study."  —  "  In  his 
latter  years,"  writes  Cotton  Mather,  *'he  did  not  Record 
so  many  of  these  Heavenly  Afflations^  because  they  grew  - 
so  frequent  with  him.  And  he  also  found  .  .  .  that  the 
Flights  of  a  Soul  rapt  up  into  a  more  Intimate  Conversa- 
tion with  Heaven,  are  such  as  cannot  be  exactly  Remem- 
bred  with  the  Happy  Partakers  of  them." 

Such  was  the  career  of  Cotton  Mather's  father  during 
the  first  sixteen  years  of  the  boy's  life.  During  these 
years  must  have  been  founded  and  confirmed  the 
passionate  personal  affection  that  marked  their  relations 
throughout  life.  Increase  Mather,  I  take  it,  was  of  a 
temper  whose  affections  were  most  conciliated  by  en- 
thusiastic acquiescence.  Cotton  Mather  never  observed 
any  other  law  of  God  quite  so  faithfully  as  the  Fifth 
Commandment.  And  the  father  he  delighted  to  honour, 
the  father  who  handed  down  traditions  of  ancestors 
equally  honourable,  was  at  the  same  time  clothed  with 
the  divine  authority  of  the  ministry,  to  all  appearances 
specially  favoured  by  God,  and  revered  by  the  public 
both  personally  and  in  his  official  capacity  as  minister 
of  the  Second  Church  and  Fellow  of  Harvard  College. 
Under  these  circumstances,  nothing  could  have  made 
a  stronger  or  more  lasting  impression  on  the  boy's  mind 
than  the  example  and  the  teachings  of  his  father.  How 
that  example  impressed  him,  his  accounts  of  his  father 
and  his  grandparents  show.     Exactly  what  those  teach- 


mS   YOUTH.  29 

ings  were  is  not  recorded.  Two  or  three  records  of 
domestic  life  at  this  time,  however,  may  help  us  guess 
what  Increase  Mather's  teachings  must  have  been. 

To  understand  these  records  nowadays,  we  must 
recall  afresh  the  creed  that  at  almost  every  moment 
made  the  concerns  of  another  world  than  this  the  chief 
reahty  in  the  minds  of  the  Puritans.  It  was  our  duty, 
they  held,  to  live  for  the  glory  of  God  ;  only  by  so 
living,  with  all  our  hearts,  could  we  assure  ourselves  of 
the  election  which  alone  could  save  us  from  the  eternal 
penalty  of  Adam's  sin  and  our  own.  The  first  thing  for 
us  to  learn  was  acquiescence  in  the  will  of  God,  —  in 
His  eternal  justice,  His  unmerited  and  for  all  we  could 
see  capricious  grace;  without  such  acquiescence  our 
wills  must  inevitably  exert  themselves  in  unregenerate 
baseness.  At  worst  we  could  be  no  worse  off  than  our 
damnable  deserts ;  and  if  at  any  time  we  had  the  in- 
effable joy  to  find  ourselves  elect,  nothing  could  more 
exquisitely  torture  us  than  the  memory  of  early  godless- 
ness.  As  soon  as  children  could  talk,  then,  they  were 
set  to  a  process  of  deliberate  introspection,  whose  mark 
is  left  in  the  constitutional  melancholy  and  the  frequent 
insanity  of  their  descendants. 

In  the  light  of  these  facts,  two  entries  in  Sewall's 
Diary  are  even  more  significant  than  grotesque. 

"Nov.  6,*'  1692,  runs  the  first,  "  Joseph  1  threw  a  knop 
of  Brass  and  hit  his  Sister  Betty  on  the  forhead  so  as  to 
make  it  bleed  and  swell;  upon  which,  and  for  his  playing 
at  Prayer-time,  and  eating  when  Return  Thanks,  I  whipd 
him  pretty  smartly.  When  I  first  went  in  (calFd  by  his 
Grandmother)  he  sought  to  shadow  and  hide  himself  from 

i  Born  15  August,  1688. 


30  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

me  behind  the  head  of  the  Cradle :   which  gave  me  the 
sorrowfull  remembrance  of  Adam's  carriage." 

The  second  is  for  January  13,  1695-6:  — 

*'When  I  came  in,  past  7  at  night,  my  wife  met  me  in  the 
Entry  and  told  me  Betty  1  had  surprised  them.  ...  It 
seems  Betty  Sewall  had  given  some  signs  of  dejection  and 
sorrow  ;  but  a  little  after  diner  she  burst  out  into  an 
amazing  cry,  which  caus'd  all  the  family  to  cry  too  ;  Her 
Mother  ask'd  the  reason  ;  she  gave  none  ;  at  last  said  she 
was  afraid  she  should  goe  to  Hell,  her  sins  were  not  par- 
don'd.  She  was  first  wounded  by  my  reading  a  Sermon  of 
Mr.  Norton's,  about  the  5th  of  Jan.  Text  Jno.  7.  34,  Ye 
shall  seek  me  and  shall  not  find  me.  And  those  words  in 
the  Sermon,  Jno.  8.  21,  Ye  shall  seek  me  and  shall  die  in  your 
sins,  ran  in  her  mind,  and  terrified  her  greatly.  And  .stay- 
ing at  home  Jan.  12,  she  read  out  of  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  — 
Why  hath  Satan  filled  thy  heart,  which  increas'd  her  Fear. 
Her  Mother  ask'd  her  whether  she  pray'd.  She  answer'd, 
Yes;  but  feared  her  prayers  were  not  heard  because  her 
Sins  not  pardon'd.  Mr.  Willard,*  though  sent  for  timelyer, 
.  .  .  came  not  till  after  I  came  home.  He  discoursed  with 
Betty  who  could  not  give  a  distinct  account,  but  was  con- 
fused as  his  phrase  was,  and  as  had  experienced  in  himself. 
Mr.  Willard  pray'd  excellently.  The  Lord  bring  Light  and 
Comfort  out  of  this  dark  and  dreadful  Cloud,  and  Grant  that 
Christ's  being  formed  in  my  dear  child,  may  be  the  issue 
of  these  painfull  pangs." 

A  familiar  example  of  infant  piety,  from  the  Magna- 
lia,^  shows  what  elect  children  were  expected  to  be. 

"  Anne  Greenough  .  .  .  left  the  world  when  she  was  but 
about  five  years  old,  and  yet  gave  astonishing  discoveries 

^  Born  29  December,  1681. 

2  Minister  of  the  Old  South  Church. 

8  VL  VIL,  Appendix. 


HIS   YOUTH.        ')  31 

of  a  regard  unto  God,  and  Christ,  and  her  own  soul,  before 
she  went  away.  When  she  heard  any  thing  about  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  she  would  be  strangely  transported,  and  rav- 
ished in  her  spirit  at  it ;  and  had  an  unspeakable  delight 
in  catechizing.  She  would  put  strange  questions  about 
eternal  things,  and  make  answers  her  self  that  were  ex- 
treamly  pertinent.  Once  particularly  she  asked,  *Are  we 
not  dead  in  sin  ? '  and  presently  added,  *  But  I  will  take 
this  way:  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  shall  make  me  alive.* 
She  was  very  frequent  and  constant  in  secret  prayer,  and 
could  not  with  any  patience  be  interrupted  in  it.  She  told 
her  gracious  mother,  *  that  she  there  prayed  for  her ! '  and 
was  covetous  of  being  with  her  mother,  when  she  imagin'd 
such  duties  to  be  going  forward.  Wlien  she  fell  sick  at 
last  of  a  consumption,  she  would  not  by  sports  be  diverted 
from  the  thoughts  of  death,  wherein  she  took  such  pleas- 
ure that  she  did  not  care  to  hear  any  thing  else.  And  if 
she  were  asked  *  whether  she  were  ready  to  die  ? '  she  would 
still  cheerfully  reply,  *  Ay,  by  all  means,  that  I  may  go  to 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ/  " 

Such  domestic  influences  as  these  surrounded  Cot- 
ton Mather's  childhood.  The  Boston  in  which  they 
flourished  was  between  thirty  and  forty  years  old. 
From  a  bare  peninsula  of  such  gravelly  hills  as  one 
may  still  see  about  the  harbour,  it  had  become  a  flour- 
ishing seaport,  in  aspect  not  unlike  the  older  parts  of 
Newburyport  or  Portsmouth  to-day.  The  population 
of  Massachusetts  in  1665  was,  according  to  Palfrey, 
about  twenty-five  thousand,  of  whom  a  large  minority 
resided  in  the  capital.  New  England,  in  short,  was 
becoming  too  important  to  be  much  longer  abandoned 
to  its  own  devices.  By  far  the  most  vivid  pictures  of 
the  social  life  of  the  time  are  in  Sewall's  Diary. 
People  were  forced  by  public  opinion  to  the  willing — 


32  CO  TTON  MA  THER, 

performance  of  their  several  duties :  they  attended  t(^ 
their  business,  they  took  conscientious  interest  and 
part  in  politics,  they  went  to  church  as  often  as  pos- 
sible, —  which  was  at  least  three  times  a  week,  —  and 
their  most  edifying  festivals  were  the  frequent  funerals 
incident  to  the  physical  hardship  of  the  period.  Per- 
haps the  most  suggestive  fact  concerning  their  extreme 
simplicity  of  manners  is,  that  young  people  of  the 
better  sort  habitually  went  into  domestic  service.  The 
Sewalls  were  people  of  consideration;  but  in  1676 
Sewall's  sister  Jane  came  from  Newbury  to  live  with 
Mrs.  Usher ;  and,  finding  that  this  lady  had  supplied 
herself  with  help,  went  to  live  at  Sewall's  "  Father 
Hull's,''  who  wanted  a  maid,  and  discovered  that  it 
was  hard  to  find  a  good  one.^  At  this  time  Seth 
Shove,  a  minister's  son,  and  later  a  minister  himself, 
was  also  living  at  Mr.  Hull's,  where  on  the  day  of  his 
arrival  a  neighbour,  mistaking  him  in  the  dark  for  a 
stray  dog,  had  knocked  him  over  the  head,  —  a  cir- 
cumstance which  led  Sewall  to  fear  that  "the  Devil 
seemed  to  be  angry  at  the  child's  coming  to  dwell 
here."  ^  And  a  little  earlier  Sewall  gives  a  very  curious 
account  of  the  spiritual  experience  of  one  Tim  Dwight, 
son  of  a  gentleman  in  Dedham,  and  likewise  appren- 
ticed to  Father  Hull.^  Just  after  prayers  one  day,  Tim 
fell  in  a  swoon,  and,  recovering,  in  a  most  incoherent 
condition  lamented  that  his  day  of  grace  was  out. 
Sewall  reproached  him,  saying  that  "  't  was  sin  for  any 
one  to  conclude  themselves  Reprobate."  But  Tim  was, 
not  to  be  comforted. 

1  Sewall's  Diary,  I.  34,  35. 

2  Ibid.,  30.  8  Ibid.,  15,  16. 


HIS  YOUTH.  33 

"  Notwithstanding  all  this  semblance  of  compunction," 
adds  Sewall,  *'  't  is  to  be  feared  that  his  trouble  arose  from 
a  maid  whom  he  passionately  loved  :  for  that  when  Mr. 
Dwight  and  his  master  had  agreed  to  let  him  goe  to  her,  he 
eftsoons  grew  well."  A  fortnight  later,  Sewall  "spake  to 
Tim  of  this,  asked  him  whether  his  convictions  were  off. 
He  answered,  no.  I  told  him  how  dangerous  it  was  to 
make  the  convictions  wrought  by  God's  spirit  a  stalking 
horse  to  any  other  thing.    Broke  off,  he  being  called  away.*' 

In  such  a  society,  and  among  such  domestic  influ- 
ences as  we  have  seen,  Cotton  Mather  grew  up.  -Late 
in  life,  he  wrote  for  his  son  Samuel  some  account  of 
his  early  years.^ 

"  I  desire  to  bewayl  unto  the  very  end  of  my  Life,  the 
early  Ebullitions  of  Original  Sin,  which  appeared  at  the 
very  Beginning  of  it.  Indeed  your  Grandfather,  tho'  he 
were  a  wise  and  strict  parent,  would  from  the  observation  of 
some  Dispositions  in  me,  comfort  himself  with  an  Opinion 
of  my  being  Sanctified  by  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God  in  my  very 
infancy.  But  he  knew  not  how  vile  I  was,  he  saw  not  the 
instances  of  ^  going  astray ^  even  while  I  was  yet  an  in- 
fant. However,  there  were  some  good  things  in  my  child- 
hood, in  which  I  wish  ?ny  child  may  do  better  than  I.  I 
began  to  pray,  even  when  I  began  to  speak.  I  learned 
myself  to  write  before  my  going  to  school  for  it.  I  used 
secret  prayer^  not  confining  myself  to  Forms  in  it :  and  yett 
I  composed  Forms  of  prayer  for  my  school-mates  (I  sup- 
pose when  I  was  about  seven  or  eight  years  old),  and  obliged 
them  to  pray.  Before  I  could  write  Sermons  in  the  public 
Assemblies  I  commonly  wrote  what  I  remembered  when  I 
came  home.  I  rebuked  my  play  mates  for  their  wicked 
words  and  ways ;  and  sometimes  I  suffered  from  them,  the 
persecution   of   not   only   Scoffs   but  Blows  also,  for  my 

'     1  Paterna.    MS.  in  the  library  of  the  late  Judge  Skinner,  of 
Chicago. 


34  COTTON  MATHER. 

Rebukes,  which  when  somebody  told  your  Grandfather,  I 
remember  he  seemed  very  ^lad^  yea,  almost  proud  of  my 
Affronts,  and  I  then  wondered  at  it,  tho'  afterwards  I  better 
understood  his  Heavenly  principles." 

The  principal  schoolmaster  of  this  godly  youth  was 
the  celebrated  Ezekiel  Cheever,  to  whose  memory  Cot- 
ton Mather  paid  a  heartfelt  tribute  : 

"  'T  is  Corlett's  praise  and  Cheever's,  we  must  own, 
That  thou,  New  England,  art  not  Scythia  grown."  ^ 

Sewall  gives  a  graphic  account  of  the  last  days  of 
this  famous  pedagogue,^  ending  with  this  sketch  of 
his  life  :  — 

"  He  was  born  January  25,  161 4.  Came  over  to  N.  E. 
1637,  to  Boston  :  To  New-Haven  1638.  Married  in  the  Fall 
and  began  to  teach  School;  which  Work  he  was  constant  in 
till  now.  First,  at  New-Haven,  then  at  Ipswich  ;  then  at 
Charlestown  ;  then  at  Boston,  whither  he  came  1670.  So 
that  he  has  Laboured  in  that  Calling  Skillfully,  diligently, 
constantly,  Religiously,  Seventy  years.  A  rare  Instance  of 
Piety,  Health,  Strength,  Serviceableness.  The  Wellfare  of 
the  Province  was  much  upon  his  Spirit.  He  abominated 
Perriwigs."  ^ 

What  Cotton  Mather  studied,  and  how  he  comported 
himself  under  this  master,  appears  from  the  manuscript 
he  left  his  son.** 

1  Corderius  Americanus  (1708). 

2  Diary,  II.  230,  231  (August,  170S). 

8  This  was  always  a  serious  matter  with  Sewall :  "  Friday, 
Nov.  6  [1685].  Having  occasion  ...  to  go  to  Mr.  Hayward, 
the  Publick  Notary's  House,  I  speak  to  him  about  his  cutting 
off  his  Hair,  and  wearing  a  Perriwig  of  contrary  Colour :  men- 
tion the  words  of  our  Saviour,  Can  ye  not  make  an  Hair  white 
or  black.  ...  He  alledges,  the  Doctor  advised  him  to  it.  " 
Diary,  I.  102.     And  cf.  II.  36,  37. 

*  Paterna. 


HIS  YOUTH.  35 

'*One  special  Fault  of  my  childhood  (against  which  I 
would  have  you  my  son  be  cautioned)  was  idleness.  And 
one  thin*^  that  occasioned  me  very  much  idle  time^  was 
the  Distance  of  my  Father's  Habitation  from  the  School; 
which  caused  him  out  of  compassion  for  my  Tender  and 
Weakly  constitution  to  keep  me  at  home  in  the  Winter. 
However  I  then  much  employed  myself  in  Church  History; 
and  when  Summer  arrived  I  so  plied  my  Business,  that 
thro'  the  Blessing  of  God  upon  my  endeavours,  at  the  Age 
of  little  more  than  eleven  years  I  had  composed  many  Latin 
exercises,  both  in  prose  and  verse,  and  could  speak  Latin  so 
readily,  that  I  could  write  notes  of  sermons  of  the  English 
preacher,  in  it  I  had  conversed  with  Cato^  Corderius, 
Terence^  Tully^  Ovid,  and  Virgil.  I  had  made  Epistles  and 
Themes;  presenting  my  first  Theme  to  my  Master,  without 
his  requiring  or  expecting  as  yett  any  such  thing  of  me; 
whereupon  he  complimented  me  Laudabilis  Diligentia 
tua.^  I  had  gone  through  a  great  part  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament in  Greek,  I  had  read  considerably  in  Socrates  and 
Homer,  and  I  had  made  some  entrance  in  my  Hebrew  gram- 
mar. And  I  think  before  I  came  to  Fourteen,  I  composed 
Hebrew  exercises  and  Ran  thro'  the  other  Sci'ences,  that 
Academical  Students  ordinarily  fall  upon.'' 

At  twelve  he  had  been  admitted  to  Harvard  College 
What  the  College  was  then  like  may  be  guessed  from 
the  "  Laws,  Liberties,  and  Orders "  printed  in  the 
Appendix  to  Quincy's  History  of  Harvard  University.^ 
In  brief,  the  students  had  to  observe  rules  of  pious  de- 
corum inconceivable  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and" 
ultimately  to  prove  their  fitness  for  the  bachelor's  degree 
by  showing  that  they  could  "  read  the  original  of  the 
Old  and  New  Testament  into  the  Latin  tongue,  and 
resolve  them  logically."     To  be  sure,  human  depravity 

1  "Your  diligence  is  praiseworthy."     *         2  Vol.  L  p.  515. 


v^ 


36  COTTON  MATHER. 

had  so  manifested  itself  among  undergraduates  as  early 
as  1659  that  the  authorities  of  the  College  thought 
proper  to  authorize  the  town  watch  to  keep  order  in 
the  college  yard.  But  in  general  whoever  looks  through 
the  pages  of  Sibley's  "  Harvard  Graduates  "  must  feel 
sure  that  during  the  first  half-century  of  its  existence 
Harvard  College  to  a  rare  degree  fulfilled  the  purpose 
for  which  it  was  founded,  and  gave  the  Colonies  a 
notably  vigourous,  learned,  devoted  ministry.  In  the 
"  Magnalia  *'  ^  Cotton  Mather  gives  a  catalogue  of  the 
Congregational  ministers  officiating  in  New  England 
in  1696;  he  names  one  hundred  and  twenty-one;  of 
these  only  eleven  were  not  graduates  of  Harvard. 
Of  his  academic  studies,  Cotton  Mather  writes  thus  : 

"  I  composed  Sysie7?is  both  of  Logick  and  Physick,  in 
Catachisms  of  my  own,  which  have  since  been  used  by 
many  others.  I  went  over  the  use  of  the  Globes^  and  pro- 
ceeded in  Arithmetic  as  far  as  was  ordinary.  I  made 
Theses^  and  Antitheses  upon  the  main  Questions  that  lay 
before  me.  For  my  Declamations  I  ordinarily  took  some 
Article  of  Natural  Philosophy  for  my  subject,  by  which 
contrivances  I  did  Kill  two  birds  with  one  Stone.  Hundreds 
of  books  I  read  over,  and  I  kept  a  Diary  of  my  studies. 
My  S071  I  would  not  have  mentioned  these  things,  but  that 
I  may  provoke ^^wr  emulation."  2 

Meanwhile  his  spiritual  life  had  been  growing. 

"  I  can't  certainly  remember,"  he  writes, ^  "  (having  by 
an  unhappy  casualty  ^  lost  some  of  my  records)  when  it  was 
that  I  began  to  keep  Days  of  Prayer  with  Fastifig  alone 
by  myself.  But  I  think  it  was  when  I  was  about  fourteen 
years  old.  And  I  remember  well  That  I  made  Mr,  Scud- 
der''s  Christian'' s  Walk  my  Directory  in  those  Duties."      j 

1 1.  VII.  2  Paterna.  ^  ggg  p^ge  271. 


HIS  YOUTH.  37 

He  notes  that  he  was  melancholy,  and  thought  he 
had  every  distemper  he  read  of.  His  self- conscious- 
ness was  enhanced  by  what  often  afflicts  people  of 
active  mind,  —  an  impediment  of  speech.^  He  "  had 
great  benefit  from  a  Society  of  Young  Men,  who  met 
every  Evening  after  the  Lord's  Day  for  the  Services  of 
Religion."  Two  other  small  facts  about  his  under- 
graduate career  are  recorded  in  the  Mather  Papers  :  he 
sent  to  his  uncle  abroad  a  carefully  drawn  map  of  the 
region,  wherein  his  uncle  was  surprised  to  find  that  the 
Blue  Hills  were  not,  as  he  remembered  them,  north  of 
Boston ;  and  during  some  vacations  he  was  invited  to 
act  as  tutor  to  some  kinsmen  older  than  he.  At  sixteen^^"*^^ 
he  became  a  member  of  the  Second  Church.  J 

Slight  enough  these  facts ;  but  they  should  help  us 

presented  himself  for  tb^.J?^chelor*s  de^ysie.     At  that 
time  he  was  the  youngestjwhoJbrafiL-^ver  appUoii.  for,  it 
at  Har\:ard  ;  to  this  day  but  two  have  applied  younger.^  " 
And  this  is  what  President  Urian  Oakes  said  to  him  in 
his  Commencement  oration  :  — 

'*  Alter  vero  Cottonus  Matherus  nuncupatur.  Quantum 
Nomen!  Erravi,  fateor,  Auditores ;  dicissem  etenim, 
quanta  Nomina !  Nihil  ego  de  Reverendo  Patre,  Aca- 
demiae  Curatore  vigilantissimo,  municipii  Academici  socio 
primario,  dicam;  quoniam  coram  et  in  os  laudare  nolim  ; 
sed  si  Pietatem,  Eruditionem,  Ingenium  elegans,  Judicium 
Solidum,  Prudentiam  et  Gravitatem  Avorum  Reverendissi- 
morum  Joannis  Cottoni  et  Richardi  Matheri,  referat 

1  S.  Mather,  Life  of  Cotton  Mather. 

2  Paul  Dudley,  1690,  and  Andrew  Preston  Peabody,  1826. 
Sibley,  III.  6. 


38  COTTON  MATHER. 

et  representet,  omne  tuHsse  Punctum  did  poterit ;  nee  des- 
pero  futurum,  ut  in  hoc  juvene  Cottonus  atq :  Matherus 
tam  re  quam  Nomine  coalescant  et  reviviscant."  ^ 

^  Sibley,  III.  6,  7. — *'The  next  is  named  Cotton  Mather.  How 
notable  a  name  !  I  am  wrong,  my  friends  ;  I  should  rather  have 
said  what  notable  names  !  I  will  say  nothing  of  his  reverend 
father,  the  most  watchful  of  guardians,  the  most  distinguished 
Fellow  of  the  College :  I  dare  not  praise  him  here,  to  his  very 
face.  But  if  this  youth  bring  back  into  being  the  piety,  the  learn- 
ing, the  elegant  accomplishment,  the  sound  sense,  the  prudence, 
and  the  gravity  of  his  very  reverend  grandfathers,  John  Cotton 
and  Richard  Mather,  he  may  be  said  to  have  done  his  highest 
duty.  Nor  is  my  hope  small  that  in  this  youth  Cotton  and 
Mather  shall,  in  fact  as  well  as  in  name,  join  together  and  once 
more  appear  in  life." 


IV. 

The  Fall  of  the  Charter.  —  The  Beginning  of 
CoiTON  ^Lvther's  Ministry. 

1678-1686. 

The  next  eight  years  were  among  the  most  critical 
in  the  history  of  Massachusetts.  From  the  settlement 
the  Colony  had  been  governed  under  a  royal  charter, 
granted  to  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay  in  1629.     Under  this,  as  we  have  seen,  none 

*  but  church-members  had  been  freemen.  Church- mem- 
bers had  elected  all  political  officers ;  they  had  estab- 
lished their  own  system  of  law ;  on  their  actions,  and 
on  their  actions  alone,  rested  everything  in  the  rapidly 
strengthening  community ;  not  so  much  as  the  title  to 
an  acre  of  land  came  from  any  other  source.  The  re- 
lation of  the  Colony  to  the  Crown,  in  short,  was  com- 
prised in  the  fact  that  the  Crown  had  originally  granted 
the  Charter.  As  we  have  seen,  the  disturbed  condi- 
tion of  England  during  the  Civil  Wars  and  the  Com- 

»  monwealth  conspired  with  the  original  insignificance  of 
th6  Colony  to  allow  it  virtual  independence ;  and  its 
political  history  is  that  of  a  conflict  between  the  theo- 

^  cratic  and  the  democratic  spirits  inherent  in  its  original 
constitution. 

A  new  factor  had  now  appeared,  however.  Theoret- 
ically, New  England,  in  virtue  of  its  discovery  by  the 
Cabots,  was  the  private  property  of  the  sovereign.  Only 


40  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

the  voluntary  act  of  the  sovereign,  in  the  Charter,  gave 
the  colonists  any  rights  at  all ;  their  position  resembled 
that  of  tenants  on  a  private  estate.  And  from  the 
beginning  the  Charter  had  been  contested  by  some 
gentlemen,  who  maintained  that  it  was  in  violation  of 
previous  royal  grants  to  them.  Under  Charles  II.  this 
attack  was  renewed,  partly  perhaps  because  New  Eng- 
land was  growing  too  prosperous  to  be  let  alone.  Dur- 
ing King  Philip's  War  there  came  to  Boston  for  the 
first  time  Edward  Randolph,  agent  of  the  Lords  of 
Trade,  with  a  royal  letter  requiring  the  Governor  and 
Assistants  of  Massachusetts  at  once  to  send  representa- 
tives to  England,  there  to  answer  the  claims  of  those  who 
contested  the  Charter.  The  contest  thus  begim  lasted 
till  1684.  Massachusetts  fought  to  the  death,  but  no 
diplomacy  could  save  her.  What  is  more,  a  party  ap- 
peared in  the  Colony  itself  which  favoured  submission 
to  royal  authority.  This  party  seems  to  have  been  built 
up  chiefly  by  the  exertions  of  Randolph,  who  constantly 
went  back  and  forth  from  England,  and  achieved  a  pop- 
ular detestation  not  yet  quite  forgotten.  At  the  head  of 
the  Royalists  was  Joseph  Dudley,  son  of  Thomas  Dudley, 
second  Governor  of  the  Colony.  In  1 684  came  the  end  ; 
the  Court  of  Chancery  vacated  the  Charter  of  Massa- 
chusetts. Without  a  government,  without  a  single  legal 
right,  the  Colony  lay  at  the  mercy  of  the  Crown.  It 
was  the  intention  of  Charles  II.  to  send  over  as  gover 
nor,  vested  with  absolute  authority,  that  Colonel  Percy 
Kirk  whose  '*  Lambs  "  a  few  months  later  did  such 
notable  work  in  suppressing  the  traces  of  Monmouth's 
rebellion.^     But   before   anything   definite   was   done, 

^  See  Macaulay's  History  of  England,  Chapter  V. 


THE  FALL   OF  THE   CHARTER,  41 

Charles  was  dead,  James  on  the  throne,  Monmouth 
in  arms,  and  Kirk  busy  cutting  undefended  throats. 
Meanwhile,  in  Massachusetts,  one  more  election  was 
held  under  the  forms  of  the  vacated  charter :  the  last 
Governor  elected  by  the  people  was  Simon  Bradstreet, 
who  was  likewise  the  last  survivor  of  the  magistrates 
who  nearly  sixty  years  before  had  founded  the  govern- 
ment now  at  an  end. 

With  these  facts  in  view,  certain  dry  notes  in  Sewall's 
Diary  ^  grow  dramatic.  He  tells  how,  on  the  14th  of 
May,  1686,  the  Rose  frigate  arrived  at  Nantasket ;  how 
Randolph  came  to  town  by  eight  in  the  morning,  and 
took  coach  for  Roxbury,  where  Dudley  lived;  and 
how,  with  other  magistrates,  he  himself  was  summoned 
to  see  the  judgment  against  the  Charter  with  the  Broad 
Seal  of  England  aflUxed.  He  tells  how,  on  the  follow- 
ing Sunday,  Randolph  came  to  the  Old  South  Church, 
where  Mr.  Willard  in  his  prayer  made  no  mention  of 
Governor  or  government;  but  spoke  as  if  all  were 
changed  or  changing.  He  tells  how  next  day  the 
General  Court  assembled,  and  how  Joseph  Dudley, 
temporarily  made  President  of  New  England,  exhibited 
the  condemnation  of  the  Charter  and  his  own  commis- 
sion under  the  Broad  Seal  of  England;  how  the  old 
magistrates  began  to  make  some  formal  answer,  and 
how  Dudley  said  he  could  not  acknowledge  them  as  a 
court  nor  in  any  way  capitulate  with  them ;  and  how, 
when  Dudley  was  gone,  a  sorrowful  group  of  the  old 
magistrates  decided  that  there  was  no  room  for  a 
protest :  "  The  foundations  being  gone  what  can  the 
Righteous  do?'*  He  tells  how  Increase  Mather  with 
1  Vol.  I.  pp.  137-140. 


42  COTTON-  MA  TITER. 

Other  ministers  vainly  strove  to  persuade  Dudley  not 
to  accept  the  presidency.  And  finally  comes  this 
note :  — 

"Friday,  May  21,  1686.  The  Magistrates  and  Deputies 
goe  to  the  Governour's.  .  .  .  Mr.  Nowell  prayed  that  God 
would  pardon  each  Magistrate  and  Deputies  Sin.  Thanked 
God  for  our  hithertos  of  Mercy  56  years,  in  which  time  sad 
Calamities  elsewhere,  as  Massacre  Piedmont ;  thanked  God 
for  what  we  might  expect  from  sundry  of  those  now  set  over 
us.  I  moved  to  sing,  so  sang  the  17.  and  18.  verses  of 
Habbakkuk.i  The  Adjournment  .  .  .  was  declared  by  the 
weeping  Marshall-General.  Many  Tears  Shed  in  Prayer 
and  at  Parting." 

This  dry  note  marks  the  end  of  the  pristine  govern- 
ment of  Massachusetts.  From  that  day  to  this  church 
'  and  state  have  been  finally  separate  there.  Until  the 
American  Revolution,  the  people  never  had  a  word  in 
the  choice  of  another  Governor.  The  dream  of  the 
Puritans  —  the  dream  of  a  state  governed  only  by  the 
dictates  of  Scripture  —  had  passed,  with  other  dreams 
of  men,  into  the  region  of  things  that  may  not  be. 

For  seven  months  Joseph  Dudley  was  President  of 
the  provincial  government  of  New  England.  On  Sun- 
day, May  30,  Sewall  notes  that  he  sang 
"the  141  Psalm  .  .  .  exceedingly  suited  to  the  day. 
Wherein  there  is  to  be  worship  according  to  the  Church 
of  England,  as  'tis  called,  in  the  Town  House,  by  coun- 
tenance of  Authority." 

In  August,  he  had  grave  doubts  as  to  whether  he 

1  Hab.  iii.  17,  18.  "Although  the  fig  tree  shall  not  blossom, 
neither  shall  fruit  be  in  the  vines ;  the  labour  of  the  olive  shall 
fail,  and  the  fields  shall  yield  no  meat ;  the  flock  shall  be  cut  off 
from  the  fold,  and  there  shall  be  no  herd  in  the  stalls:  yet  I  will 
rejoice  in  the  Lord,  I  will  joy  in  the  God  of  my  salvation." 


THE  FALL   OF  THE   CHARTER.  43 

could  conscientiously  serve  in  the  militia  under  a  flag 
in  which  the  cross  was  replaced ;  in  November,  he 
finally  resigned  his  commission  as  Captain  of  the  South 
Company.  On  Saturday,  September  25,  the  Queen's 
birthday  had  been  celebrated  with  drums,  bonfires, 
and  huzzas.  Next  day,  "  Mr.  Willard  expresses  great 
grief  in*s  Prayer  for  the  Profanation  of  the  Sabbath 
last   night.'' 

On  Sunday,  December  19,  while  Sewall  was  reading 
to  his  family  an  exposition  of  Habakkuk,  he  heard  a 
great  gun  or  two  which  made  him  think  Sir  Edmund  ^ 
might  be  come.  Sure  enough  he  was,  "in  a  Scarlet 
Coat  laced."  That  day  the  President  went  to  hear 
Mr.  Willard,  who  "said  he  was  fully  persuaded  and 
confident  God  would  not  forget  the  Faith  of  those  who 
came  first  to  New  England,  but  would  remember  their 
Posterity  with  kindness."  Between  sermons  the  Presi- 
dent went  down  the  harbour  to  welcome  Sir  Edmund. 
The  next  afternoon  Andros  landed  in  state,  and  was 
escorted  by  the  eight  companies  to  the  Town- House. 
Here  his  commission  was  read,  declaring  his  power  to 
suspend  councillors  and  to  appoint  others,  and  vesting 
the  legislative  power  in  him  and  his  Council.  Then  he 
took  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and  stood  by  with  his  hat 
on  while  eight  councillors  were  sworn.  The  same  day 
he  demanded  accommodation  in  one  of  the  meet- 
ing-houses for  the  services  of  the  Church  of  England. 
This  was  too  much  for  the  Puritans.  At  a  meeting  of 
the  ministers  and  four  of  each  congregation,  it  was 
agreed  that  they  could  not  with  a  good  conscience 
consent  that  their  meeting-houses  be  made  use  of  for 

1  Andros,  the  Governor  appointed  by  James  II. 


44  COTTON  MATHER, 

the  Common  Prayer  worship ;  and  "  Mr.  Mather  i  and 
Willard  thorowly  discoursed  his  Excellency  about  the 
Meeting-Houses  in  great  plaiiiess."  So  for  a  while 
Sir  Edmund  was  content  to  worship  at  the  Town- 
House.  But  Sewall  notes,  on  January  25,  that  "this 
day  is  kept  for  St.  Paul,  and  the  bell  was  rung  in  the 
Morning,  to  call  persons  to  Service.  The  Governour 
(I  am  told)  was  there  ";  and  on  January  31  there  was 
a  similar  service  "  respecting  the  beheading  Charles 
the  First." 

Meanwhile  there  had  been  minor  symptoms  of  the 
change  that  was  coming  to  New  England.  As  early  as 
November,  1685, 

"the  Ministers  Come  to  the  Court  and  complain  against  a 
Dancing  Master  who  seeks  to  set  up  here  and  hath  mixt 
Dances,  and  his  time  of  Meeting  is  Lecture-Day;  and  'tis 
reported  he  should  say  that  by  one  Play  he  could  teach 
more  Divinity  than  Mr.  Willard  or  the  Old  Testament. 
.  .  .  Mr.  Mather  1  struck  at  the  Root,  speaking  against 
mixt  Dances."  Early  in  September,  1686,  *' Mr  Shrimp- 
ton  .  .  .  and  others  come  in  a  Coach  from  Roxbury  about 
9  aclock  or  past,  singing  as  they  come,  being  inflamed  with 
Drink:  At  Justice  Morgan's  they  stop  and  drink  Healths, 
curse,  swear,  talk  profanely  and  baudily  to  the  great  dis- 
turbance of  the  Town  and  grief  of  good  people.  Such 
high-handed  wickedness  has  hardly  been  heard  of  before  in 
Boston."  And  though  on  Christmas  day  shops  were  "  open 
generally  and  persons  about  their  occasions,"  there  was  a 
sad  affair  on  Shrove  Tuesday :  "Joseph  Maylem  carries  a 
Cock  at  his  back,  with  a  Bell  in's  hand,  in  the  Main 
Street ;  several  follow  him  blindfold,  and  under  pretence  of 
striking  him  or  's  Cock,  with  great  cart-whips  strike  passen- 
gers, and  make  great  disturbance." 

1  Increase. 


THE  FALL   OF  THE   CHARTER.  45 

During  these  eight  years  the  career  r)f  Increase 
Mather  was  steadily  advancing.  No  figure  was  more 
conspicuous  among  those  who  resisted  the  change.  ^ 
We  have  seen  how  he  vainly  tried  to  dissuade  Joseph 
Dudley  from  accepting  the  presidency  of  New  England, 
and  how  he  told  Sir  Edmund  **  in  great  plainness  "  that 
the  meeting-houses  of  Boston  should  not  be  used  for 
the  rites  of  the  Established  Church.  But  we  must  turn 
to  Cotton  Mather  for  a  full  account  of  his  Ufe,  public 
and  private.^  In  1679  Increase  Mather  was  among 
the  leaders  of  that  Synod  which  assembled  to  consider 
"  What  are  the  Evils  that  have  Provoked  the  Lord  to 
bring  his  judgments  on  New  England  ?  and  what  is  to 
be  done  that  so  these  Evils  may  be  Reformed?**  A 
general  revival  followed,  in  which  the  earnest  work  of 
the  preachers  resulted  in  many  renewed  covenants 
with  the  Lord.  A  year  later,  on  the  verge  of  a  severe 
illness,  he  was  called  to  preside  at  a  second  meeting  of 
the  Synod,  which  formulated  the  elaborate  Confession 
of  Faith  printed  in  the  "  Magnalia."  ^  He  **  kept  them 
so  close  to  their  Business  that  in  Two  Days  they  dis- 
patch'd  it :  and  he  also  Composed  the  Prceface  to  the 
Confession,  On  this  he  immediately  took  to  his  Bed 
under  a  dangerous  fever."  But,  in  accordance  with 
many  prayers  of  many  good  people,  he  recovered; 
and  preached  his  first  sermon  on  the  text,  "  To  me  to 
Live  is  Christ."  At  the  death  of  Urian  Oakes,  in  1681, 
he  acted  for  a  while  as  President  of  Harvard  College. 
Four  years  later,  after  the  death  of  John  Rogers,  he 
finally  accepted  the  presidency. 

1  Parentator,  Arts.  XVIII.-XXII. 

2  V.I. 


46  COTTON  MATHER, 

It  was  in  1683  that  the  demand  came  from  Charles 
II.  that  Massachusetts  should  "make  2i full Sub??iissio?i 
and  entire  Resignation  of  their  Charter  to  his  pleas- 
ure." At  a  meeting  of  the  freemen  of  Boston,  Increase 
Mather  was  invited  to  give  them  his  thoughts  on  the 
Case  of  Cojiscience  before  them. 

"I  verily  Believe,"  he  said,  <'We  shall  Sin  against  the 
GOD  of  Heaven  if  we  vote  an  Affirmative.  .  .  .  Nor  would 
it  be  Wisdom  for  us  to  Comply.  We  know,  David  made  a 
Wise  Choice,  when  he  chose  to  fall  into  the  Hands  of 
GOD  rather  than  into  the  Hands  of  Men.  If  we  make  a 
full  Submission  and  entire  Resignation  to  Pleasure,  we  shall 
fall  into  the  Hands  of  Men  Immediately.  But  if  we  do  it 
not,  we  still  keep  ourselves  in  the  Hands  of  GOD;  we  trust 
ourselves  with  His  Providence:  and  who  knows,  what  GOD 
may  do  for  us?"  —  "Upon  this  pungent  Speech,"  writes 
Cotton  Mather,  **  many  of  the  Freemen  fell  into  Tears  ; 
and  there  was  a  General  Acclamation,  IVe  thank  you  ^  Syr  ! 
We  tha?ikyou^  Syr  /  The  Question  was  upon  the  Vote  car- 
ried in  the  Negative,  Nemine  Contradicente.  And  this  Act 
of  Boston  had  a  great  influence  upon  all  the  Country." 

The  next  year  came  one  of  the  most  critical  incidents 
of  Increase  Mather's  life.  A  letter  signed  with  his  ini- 
tials and  addressed  to  a  friend  in  Holland  was  inter- 
cepted and  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  authorities  in 
England.  It  contained  sentiments  which,  if  not  treason- 
able, were  in  the  highest  degree  offensive  to  the  King. 
Nothing  could  more  seriously  affect  his  public  influence 
abroad.  The  Mathers  always  declared  this  letter  a  for- 
gery, which  they  attributed  to  Edward  Randolph; 
their  enemies,  then  and  now,  have  pronounced  the 
letter  genuine  and  the  defence  a  lie.  The  question  of 
veracity   can   never,  perhaps,  be  satisfactorily  settled. 


THE  FALL   OF  THE   CHARTER.  47 

But  a  note  on  the  subject  from  Increase  Mather's  diary 
seems  to  me  honest :  — 

"  The  Lord  has  had  respect  unto  all  the  Wishes  Written 
down  before  Him;  on  Jan.  11,  1670^ — Yea  he  had  so  far 
Gratified  my  Desire  of  Suffering  for  Him^  that  my  Name 
hath  been  cast  forth  as  Vile,  and  Wicked  Men  in  England, 
Scotland^  Ireland^  Barbadoes,  and  the  Leeward  Islands,  and 
elsewhere,  have  been  Speaking  ail  manner  of  Evil  of  me 
falsely.  And  the  Ground  of  these  my  Sufferings  has 
been,  because  I  have  desired  to  Approve  myself  faithful 
unto  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  unto  His  Kingdom  and  Interest." 

A  less  depressing  experience  came  on  the  6th  of 
February,  1685;  at  this  time  Kirk  was  expected  as 
governor. 

*'This  Day,''  wrote  Increase  Mather,  "as  I  was  Pray- 
ing to  God  for  the  Deliverance  of  New-England,  1  was 
very  much  Moved  and  Melted  before  the  Lord,  so  that  for 
some  time  I  was  not  able  to  speak  a  word.  But  then,  I  could 
not  but  say,  GOD  will  deliver  New-England !  GOD  will 
deliver  New-England!  God  will  deliver  New-England! 
So  I  rose  from  my  knees,  with  much  Comfort  and  Assurance, 
that  God  had  heard  me.  These  things,  I  hope,  were  from 
the  Spirit  of  God.  Before  I  Prayed,  I  was  very  sad,  and 
much  dejected  in  my  Spirit ;  but  after  I  had  Prayed,  I  was 
very  Cheerful  and  joyful;  I  will  then  Waitiox  the  Salva- 
tion of  GOD!'' 

Sure  enough,  Kirk  never  came  to  Massachusetts. 

It  is  during  these  eight  years  that  we  begin  to  have 
definite  accounts  of  Cotton  Mather's  private  life. 
Twenty-four  of  his  diaries  are  preserved ;  and  of 
these,  four  fall  within  this  period.^     The  diaries  always 

1  Cf.  page  26. 

'^  Those  for  16S1,  1683,  1685,  and  1686;  all  in  the  possession 
of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


48  COTTON  MATHER. 

^  begin  on  his  birthday;  and  as  he  begins  the  year, 
after  the  old  fashion,  on  the  ist  of  March,  the  first 
three  weeks  of  each  volume  bear  date  of  the  year  be- 
fore the  rest  of  it.  By  far  the  greater  part  of  the 
entries  concern  his  spiritual  experiences;  yet  among 
them  are  notes  of  other  matters  sufficient  to  give  us  a 
pretty  vivid  notion  of  what  manner  of  life  he  led.  It 
is  characteristic  of  Cotton  Mather  that,  until  1711, 
none  of  the  diaries  are  original  copies.  For  some 
years  he  took  the  trouble  to  copy  from  his  records 
such  as  he  deemed  worth  preserving,  and  then  to  de- 
stroy the  notes.  But  the  presumption  of  error  which 
this  process  raises  is  greatly  weakened  in  my  mind  by 
the  fact  that  his  diaries,  after  he  gave  up  the  practice 
of  revision,  show  no  change  in  the  general  character 
of  the  entries ;  and  this  is  particularly  true  of  one 
volume,  which  his  third  wife,  who  was  occasionally  in- 
sane, stole,  and  hid  before  it  was  finished,  and  which, 
apparently,  he  never  saw  again. 

Until  1 68 1  I  find  nothing  concerning  him  beyond 
v.what  his  son  tells.^  Suffering  from  an  impediment  of 
%  speech,  he  at  first  believed  himself  unfitted  for  the 
ministry,  and  studied  medicine ;  but,  following  the  ad- 
vice of  a  friend  to  "oblige  himself  to  a  dilated  Deliber- 
ation in  speaking,"  he  "  procured  with  Divine  Help  an 
happy  delivery."  On  August  22,  1680,  he  preached  in 
his  grandfather's  church,  at  Dorchester,  his  first  sermon, 
in  which,  "  because  of  the  Calling  he  had  relinquished, 
he  did  .  .  .  consider  our  blessed  Saviour  as  the  glori- 
ous Physician  of  Souls  ;  chusing  those  words  for  his  first 
Text  in  Luke  iv.  18.    He  hath  sent  me  to  heal  the  broken- 

1  S.  Mather,  Life  of  Cotton  Mather,  26,  27. 


THE  FALL   OF  THE   CHARTER.  49 

hearted, ^^  Just  six  months  later  he  was  unanimously 
invited  to  assist  his  father  at  the  Second  Church.  ^■ 

This  was  his  occupation  during  16S1,  the  year  cov- 
ered by  his  first  extant  diary.  The  notes  in  this  con- 
cern little  but  spiritual  experiences.  The  first  is  a 
''^ng    devotional    passage,   full    of    good   resolutions, 

penned  by  Cotton  Mather^  a  Feeble  and  worthless, 
yott  [Lord  by  thy  Grace]  desirous  to  approve  himself 
a  Sincere  &  Faithful  Servant  of  Jesus  Christ."  On  the 
following  Sabbath, 

*'  The  Singular  Assistencies  which  the  God  of  Heaven 
gave  unto  mee,  in  my  public  ministrations  .  .  .  were  such 
as  caused  me  to  draw  up  this  conclusion:  I  believe  I  shall 
have  a  Glorious  Presence  of  God  with  me  through  my 
whole  Ministry.^^  And  about  this  time  he  was  gratified 
by  a  subscription  of  seventy  pounds,  ''for  my  Encourage- 
ment in  my  public  service  the  ensuing  year." 

On  the  13th  of  March,  "in  the  Assurances,  the  glo- 
rious and  Ravishing  Assurances  of  the  Divine  Love, 
my  joyes  were  almost  insupportable."  On  the  19th, 
he  was  depressed ;  on  the  3d  of  April,  he  was  again 
ecstatic ;  on  the  8th,  he  suffered  from  a  "  silence  of 
God"   in   prayer- time  —  a   punishment  for  "an  Idle 

^  Fraud  of  Soul";  on  the  loth,  he  recovered  his  poise 
of  temper :   "  If  it  be  thy  Will,"  he  wrote,  "  I  would 

«.  live,  to  do  some  Special  Service  for  thee,  before  I 
shall  go  hence  and  bee  no  more  seen."  I  cite  this 
experience  in  some  detail,  because  its  course  and  period 
of  emotional  action  and  reaction  is  typical  of  what 
followed  him  throughout  life.     In  March  he  was 

*' taken  with  a  violent  ^^/>/,  .  .  .  which  looked  like  a  mes- 
senger of  Death.    Here  I  am/'  he  wrote ;  *'  Afflict  mee ; 

4 


50  COTTON  MATHER. 

Do  what  thou  wilt  with  mee ;  Kill  mee  ;  for  thy  Grace 
hath  made  mee  willing  to  Dy  :  Otily^  Only,  Only^  Help  mee 
to  Delight  in  thee,  and  to  glorify  thy  dearest  Name." 

Two  months  later,  he  had  a  toothache,  which  in- 
duced two  reflections :  — 

*'  I.  Have  I  not  sinned  with  my  Teeth?  .  .  .  By  sin- 
ful, Graceless,  excessive  Eating.  And  by  Evil  Speeches, 
for  there  are  Liberal  Dentals  used  in  them.  II.  This  is 
an  Old  Malady,  from  which  I  have  yett  been  free,  for  a 
considerable  while.  Lett  me  ask  then :  Have  no't  I  of  late 
given  way  to  some  old  Iniquity?'' 

The  iniquity  which  troubled  him  most  seems  to  have 
been  the  one  he  mentions  most  definitely  in  October. 

*'  I  desire  to  walk  Humbly  before  the  Lord,  all  my  Dayes, 
in  the  Remembrance  of  the  Lothsome  Corruptions,  which 
my  Soul  has  been  from  my  Youth  polluted  withal.  Lord, 
Wherewithal  shall  a  young  man  cleanse  his  way  ?  Altho' 
I  have  been  kept  from  such  Out-breakings  of  Sin,  in  Ac- 
tions towards  others,  as  have  undone  many  in  the  world, 
yett  I  have  certainly  been  one  of  the  Filthiest  Creatures 
upon  Earth.'* 

Another  besetting  sin  was  revealed  to  him  in  June. 
A  good  woman  told  him  how  one  of  his  sermons  had 
convinced  her  that  she  had  fallen  into  the  sin  of  pride. 
Reflecting  that  pride  is  "  the  sin  of  young  ministers," 
he  straightway  discovered  it  in  himself.  A  day  of  pas- 
sionate prayer  followed,  which  the  Lord  was  pleased  to 
reward  with  "  glorious  Assurances  that  Hee  would  never 
Leave  the  Work  which  Hee  had  begun  in  my  soul." 
A  week  later  came  a  day  of  secret  Thanksgiving. 
"  Oh  Lord^^^  he  wrote,  ^^Not  u?ito  mee,  Not  unto  mee,  but 
U7ito  thy  Name  is  All,  All,  All  the  Gloiy  due  ;  and  thou 


THE  FALL   OF  THE   CHARTER.  51 

shalt  have  it.  There  shall  Hallelujahs  be  sung  to  thee 
forever  and  ever  *'  —  for  the  "  great  works  "  which  Cot- 
ton Mather,  thus  freed  from  the  sin  of  pride,  shall  ac- 
complish. But  before  he  closes  this  grotesque  day,  he 
earnestly  thanks  God,  too,  for  "  the  Life  and  Health  of 
my  dear  Father,  whom  I  may  reckon  among  the  Richest 
of  my  Enjoyments." 

Meanwhile,  several  of  his  experiences  had  been  com- 
forting. In  May,  a  man  whom  he  had  warned  of  Divine 
displeasure  for  not  joining  a  church,  fell  off  a  roof, 

**and  received  a  Blow,  whereof  he  Lay,  for  some  while,  as 
Dead.  But  coming  to  himself  one  of  the  first  things  he 
thought  on,  was  what  I  had  said  unto  him  ;  under  the  sense 
whereof,  hee  quickly  went  and  joined  himself  unto  the  South 
church  " 

In  October,  he  preached  in  the  pulpit  of  his  Grand- 
father Cotton, 

**  with  a  very  singular  Assistance  of  the  Lord.  Yea,  such 
was  his  powerful  presence  with  mee,  that  some  afterwards 
declared  their  melted  and  Broken  Hearts  could  hardly  for- 
bear crying  out  in  the  Assembly." 

About  the  same  time,  he  fixed  on  certain  habits  of  de- ,  / 
votion  which  he  found  permanently  edifying:  one  was 

*'  to  start  the  day  with  a  Scripture  .  .  .  which  might  be  of 
some  special  consequence  to  my  everlasting  Interests''; 
and  his  first  meditation  was  on  Zech.  13.  i,^  "cast  into 
Three  Observations.  The  Blood  oi  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
is  fitly  compared  unto  a  Fountain.  This  is  an  Open  Foun- 
tain. And,  the  End  of  it  is,  for  the  Washing  away  of  Sin, 
which  is  Uncleanness." 

^  "  In  that  day  there  shall  be  a  fountain  opened  to  the  house 
of  David  and  to  the  inhabitants  of  Jerusalem  for  sin  and  for 
uncleanness.'* 


52  COTTON  MATHER, 

A  little  earlier  he  had  had  a  still  more  comforting 
experience  :  —  ^, 

"As  I  was  in  Meditation  .  .  .  How  I  might  glorify  God? 
I  happened  to  Look  thro'  the  window  upon  the  Heavens; 
and  this  Thought  was  after  a  most  powerful  and  Refreshing 
manner  cast  into  my  mind,  Surely,  If  the  Lord  intended 
not  forever  to  glorify  mee  in  Heaven,  Hee  would  never 
have  put  it  into  my  Heart,  that  I  should  seek  to  Glorify 
Him  on  Earth/' 

But  perhaps  his  most  characteristic  experience  in 
1 68 1  was  this  :  — 

"I  bought  a  Spanish  Indian;  and  bestowed  him  for  a 
Servant  on  my  Father.  This  Thing  I  would  not  Remem- 
ber .  .  .  but  only  because  I  would  observe  whether  I  do 
not  hereafter  see  some  Special  and  Signal  Return  of  this 
Action.  ...  I  am  secretly  persuaded,  Thai  I  shall  do  so/ '^ 

In  the  course  of  his  life  he  had  a  great  many  secret 
persuasions   and  particular  faiths;  this  is  the  first  he 

records.     In  the  "  Magnalia  *'  he  defines  them  :  — 

"  Good  men,  that  labour  &  abound  in  prayer  to  the  great 
God,  sometimes  arrive  to  the  assurance  of  a  particular 
faith  for  the  good  success  of  their  prayer.  .  .  .  Many  a  real 
Christian  ...  is  a  stranger  to  .  .  .  this  thing ;  ...  it  is  here 
&  there  a  Christian,  whom  the  sovereign  grace  of  Heaven 
does  favour  with  the  consolations  of  a  particular  faith.  >  .  . 
The  wo7idrotcs  meltitigs^  the  inighty  wrestlings^  the  quiet 
waiti?igSt  &  the  holy  resolves^  that  are  characters  of  a 
particular  faith,  which  is  no  delusion,  are  the  works  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  wherein  his  holy  angels  may  be  instruments."  ^ 

A  particular  faith  which  proved  no  delusion,  then,  was 
»  above  most  things  else   an  assurance  of  election :  it 
was,  as  it  were,  a  momentary  sharing  of  the  foresight  of 
1 IV.  II.  I.  §  6. 


THE  FALL   OF  THE   CHARTER,  53 

God.  To  justify  his  faith  about  the  Spanish  Indian, 
Cotton  Mather  had  to  wait  sixteen  years  :  then  a  knight 
whom  he  had  laid  under  many  obligations  bestowed  a 
Spanish  Indian  on  him.^ 

The  actual  facts  he  noted  this  year  are  few.  On 
August  9th, 

/  I  took  my  Second  Degree,  proceeding  Master  of  Arts. 
My  Father  was  president^  so  that  from  his  Hand  I  Re- 
ceived my  Degree.  Tis  when  I  am  gott  almost  Half  a 
year  beyond  Eighteen  in  my  age.  And  all  the  circum- 
stances of  my  Commencement  were  ordered  by  a  very 
sensibly  kind  providence  o£  God.  Mv  Thesis  was,  Puncia 
Hebraica  sunt  Origin  is  Divince,^^  ^  f 

In  October  he  was  active  in  *  forwarding  a  plan, 
objected  to  by  some  as  superstitious,  that  devout  people 
should  devote  a  given  hour  every  Monday  to  prayer  for 
persecuted  churches  abroad.  In  November  he  declined 
a  call  to  New  Haven.  Towards  the  end  of  December, 
he  was  elected  pastor  of  the  Second  Church,  with  a 
salary  of  seventy  pounds.  J  In  February,  1682,  he  again 
refused  a  call  to  New  Haven. 

**  My  Reason  was,  because  the  Church  of  North  Boston 
would  have  entertained  uncomfortable  Dissatisfactions  at 
my  Father,  if  after  so  many  Important  Votes  of  Theirs  for 
my  Settlement  here,  he  had  anyway  permitted  my  Removal 
from  them."  ,^ 

He  remained  minister  of  the  North  Church  all  his  life. 

'  "Horae  plusquam  amoenae,  nunquam  rediturae,"^ 

is  the  motto  of  his  diary  for  1683.     From  now  on,  each 

^  S.  Mather,  Life,  etc.,  p.  12. 

2  Hebrew  vowel  points  are  of  divine  origin. 

8  "  More  than  delightful  hours,  never  to  return." 


54  COTTON  MATHER. 

of  his  diaries  bears  some  motto  on  the  outer  leaf;  and 
begins  with  a  devout  and  generally  searching  birthday 
meditation.  Towards  the  middle  of  the  year  he  copied 
one  of  his  original  notes  which  shows  the  course  of  his 
daily  life  :  — 

"  28  d.  6  m.  Legi  Exod.  34,  35,  36  |  Oravi  |  Examinavi 
adolescentes  |  Legi  Cartesium  |  Legi  Commentatoresin  Job. 
6.  2i1  I  Jentacul  |  Paravi  concionem  |  Orationi  interfui  Do- 
mestica  |  Audivi  pupillos  Recitantes  |  Legi  Salmon  phar- 
macop:  I  pransus  sum  |  Visitaviplures  Amicos  |  LegiVaria 
I  Paravi  concionem  |  Audivi  pupillos  Recitantes  |  Meditat: 
On,  the  exceeding  Willijigness  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  to 
Do  good  unto  them  that  come  unto  Him.  And,  I  Resolve 
As  to  be  Encouraged  in  my  Addresses  unto  the  Lord  Je- 
sus for  His  Mercy  from  the  Thoughts  of  his  mercifulness, 
then  also  the  Endeavor  that  I  may  be  Like  unto  Him  in 
Humble  and  Ready  Helpfulness  to  others  |  Oravi  |  Coe- 
navi  I  paravi  Concionem  |  Orationi  interfui  Domestica/*^ 

He  made,  and  often  put  in  practice,  any  number  of 
good  resolutions  :  some  concerning  other  people,  as  to 
encourage  rich  gentlemen  to  support  a  country  minister, 
and  to  pay  an  old  hawker  to  distribute  good  books ; 
some  more  personal,  as  to  govern  his  speech  carefully, 
to  close  visits  with  some  suitable  text  of  Scripture,  and 
t»  contrive  "  what  Noble  Attainments  I  should  be 
continually  purposing  of."  In  pursuance  of  this  last, 
he  writes :  — 

f  1  Read  Exodus,  etc. :  Prayed :  Examined  the  children  :  read 
Descartes :  read  commentators,  etc. ;  breakfasted :  prepared 
sermon  :  took  part  in  family  prayer  :  heard  pupils  recite  :  read 
Salmon  on  medicine :  dined  :  visited  many  friends :  read  vari- 
ous books :  prepared  sermon  ;  heard  pupils  recite :  meditated, 
etc. :  prayed :  supped  :  prepared  sermon :  took  part  in  family 
prayer. 


THE  FALL   OF  THE  CHARTER.  55 

**  While  I  was  lying  on  my  Couch  in  the  Dusk  of  the 
Evening  I  extempore  composed  the  following  Hymn,  which 
I  then  sang  unto  the  Lord."    A  typical  stanza  runs  : 
"  I  will  not  any  Creature  Love 
But  in  the  Love  of  Thee  Above  .  .  . 

**  I  designed  rather  pietie  than  poetrie  in  these  lines." 

He  comments  on  them  in  three  closely  written  pages. 

He  hit  upon  a  device  of  fining  himself  for  any 
misconduct :  — 

**  Thus  I  Laid  a  penalty  for  some  while  upon  myself, 
That  if  in  Joining  with  the  prayers  of  another,  I  did  Lett 
more  than  one  entire  Sentence  pass  me,  at  any  Time,  with- 
out annexing  some  Ejaculation  pertinent  thereunto,  I  would 
forfeit  a  piece  of  money  to  be  given  unto  the  poor.  And  I 
found  this  effect  of  it,  that  in  a  Week  or  Two,  I  had  Little 
occasion  to  Lay  vay  penalty ;  for  I  found  my  Distractions 
in  my  Duties,  which  had  been  my  plague,  most  wonderfully 
cured." 

During  an  evening  walk,  when  he 

"had  such  a  prospect  of  our  Neighbourhood  as  gave  mee  to 
see  that  God  had  cast  my  Lot,  in  a  place  exceedingly /^/«- 
/f7wj,  I  found  my  Heart,  after  a  more  than  ordinary  manner 
melted  in  Desires  after  the  Conversion  and  Salvation  of  the 
Souls  in  this  place.  And  my  soul  was  afterwards  exceed- 
ingly Transported,  in  prayers  for  such  a  Mercy." 

Praying  over  a  friend  critically  ill, 

the  good  man  felt,  as  it  were,  a  Load  or  Cloud,  beginning 
to  Roll  off  his  Spirits ;  and  from  that  Instant,  unto  his  own 
admiration,  he  began  to  Recover.  .  .  .  Oh  !  my  Soul,  why 
dost  thou  forgett  such  Benefits  ! "  In  July,  **  Overlooking 
the  addresses  of  persons  to  join  unto  the  church,  I  found 
over  Thirty  Seals  of  my  ministry  in  this  place.  .  .  .  From 
whence  I  may  form  2i  probable  cofnpiitation  of  many  Scores, 
that  have  here  and  elsewhere  been  thereby  helped  in  their 


56  CO  7- TON  MA  THER. 

acquaintance  with  the  Lord.  Blessed  be  God."  At  a 
young  people's  thanksgiving  late  in  the  year,  "the  Lord 
helped  mee  to  preach  unto  them  almost  Three  Hours  (tho' 
I  had  Little  more  than  One  Hour's  Time  to  prepare  for  it). 
.  .  .  And  a  good  Day  it  was  !" 

Two  little  incidents  this  year  impressed  him  much. 
His  father  admiring  his  watch,  he  gave  it  to  him ; 
shortly  afterwards  a  gentleman  from  whom  he  "  had  no 
reason  to  expect  such  a  visit "  gave  him  a  better  one  : 
an  experience  which  induced  a  resolution  to  stir  up 
*  dutifulness  to  parents  in  himself  and  others.  And  a 
gentleman  imported  a  seal  for  him,  which  was  lost  in  a 
fire,  but  subsequently  found  in  the  ruins. 

"  I  prayed  herewithal,"  he  writes,  *'  That  by  no  Fire^ 
neither  the  Fire  of  Lust  here,  nor  the  Fire  of  Hell  here- 
after I  might  miss  of  the  promise  which  the  Blood  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  hath  sealed." 

Far  edifying  as  this  year  was,  it  was  not  without  sor- 
rows. His  baby  sister  Katharine  died.  And  in  July 
comes  a  note  that  shows  a  more  intimate  trouble  :  — 

"  Using  of  sacred  ?neditations  (with  mixed  Supplications) 
at  my  waking  minutes  every  morning  in  my  Bed,  and  in  this 
Course  going  over  many  portions  of  the  Scriptures  a  Verse 
at  a  Time,  the  Thought  of  Isaac  having  his  happy  Consort 
brought  unto  him  when  and  where  he  was  engaged  in  his 
Holy  Meditations,  came  sometimes  into  my  mind,  and  I  had 
sometimes  a  strange  persuasion.  That  there  would  a  Time 
come,  when  I  should  have  my  Bed  Blessed  with  such  a 
Consort  given  unto  mee,  as  Isaac,  the  Servant  of  the  Lord, 
was  favoured  withal." 

In  December  he  found  Satan  buffeting  him  with 
unclean  temptations. 

"  Besides  my  .  .  .  usual  .  .  .  Devotions,''  he  writes,  "  I 


THE  FALL   OF  THE   CHARTER,  57 

did  this  Day  write  after  this  manner,  That  I  may  pluck 
out  my  Right  Eye,  and  cutt  off  my  Right  Hand.  ...  Oh  ! 
Blessed  Saviour,  Save  me  from  the  horrible  pitt." 

He  prayed  and  fasted  assiduously ;  but  a  month  later 
the  same  "Sorrowful  and  Horrible  Vexation"  tormented 
him  again.  About  the  same  time  an  elderly  minister 
violated  the  Seventh  Commandment :  Cotton  Mather 
fasted  and  prayed  more  than  ever. 

"  I  likewise  carried  the  wounded  minister  in  my  prayers 
unto  the  Lord  for  all  reasonable  mercies." 

At  the  very  end  of  the  year,  he  began  to  fear  that  he 
had  carried  his  mortification  of  the  flesh  so  far  as  to 
violate  the  Sixth  Commandment :  — 

"'Tis  well,  if  I  escape  a  Consumption.  .  .  .  What!  Are 
my  Duties  now  but  Murders  ?  Lord,  pardon  mee  and  pitty 
mee,  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ ! " 

The  record  of  the  year  closes  with  a  long  list  of  the 
ejaculatory  prayers  he  accustomed  himself  to  utter  on 
all  occasions  :  a  typical  one  is  this  :  — 

"  On  the  Gentlewoman  that  carv'd  for  the  Guests :  '  Lord, 
.  .  .  Carve  a  rich  Portion  of  thy  Graces  and  Comforts  to 
Uiat  Person ! ' "  1 

He  was  the  grandson  of  John  Cotton  and  Richard 
Mather,  the  son  of  Increase  Mather,  sprung  from  a 
race  of  the  chosen  vessels  of  God,  himself  a  chosen 
vessel ;  and  he  was  just  twenty-one  years  old. 

The  diary  for  1685  finds  him  approaching  ordina- 
tion. In  April  there  was  some  trouble  about  it,  which 
led  him  to  pray  that  if  his  life  were  a  real  prejudice  to 

1  S.  Mather,  Life,  p.  107. 


58  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

God,  or  a  necessary  occasion  of  strife  and  sin,  he  might 
^e  taken  out  of  the  world.  But  the  "  design  of  Satan  " 
was  frustrated  by  "  a  most  uniting  work  of  God  upon 
the  Spirits  of  the  people."  From  the  2  2d  of  April  to 
the  3d  of  May  he  was  in  a  state  of  sustained  ecstasy ; 
on  the  4th  of  May  came  reaction,  and  on  that  day  he 
wrote  and  signed  his  formal  covenant  with  God  :  — 

"  I  renounce  all  the  Vanities  and  Cursed  Idols  &  Evil 
Courses  of  this  World,"  it  runs.  **  I  engage  That  I  will 
ever  have  the  Great  God  my  Best  Good,  my  Last  Efid^  and 
my  only  Lord.  That  I  will  ever  bee  Rendering  of  Ac- 
knowledgments unto  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  all  the 
Relations  which  Hee  bears  unto  mee.  That  I  will  ever 
bee  studying  what  is  my  Dtitiem  these  things;  and  wherein 
I  find  myself  to  fall  short,  I  will  ever  make  it  my  grief ^  my 
Shame,  and  for  pardon  betake  myself  unto  the  Blood  of 
the  Everlasting  Covenant.  Now,  Humbly  Imploring  the 
Grace  of  the  Mediator,  to  bee  Sufficient  for  mee,  I  do  as 
a  further  Solemnitie,  hereunto  subscribe  my  Name  with 
both  Hand  and  Heart V 

His  signature  to  this  document  is  more  than  twice  the 
usual  size. 

On  the  13th  of  May  he  was  finally  ordained,  in  a 
frame  of  mind  adequately  expressed  by  his  covenant. 
Sewall  was  present. 

"  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  is  ordained  Pastor  by  his  Father," 
he  writes,^  "  who  said,  My  son  Cotton  Mather,  and  in  's  ser- 
mon spake  of  Aaron's  Garments  being  put  on  Eleazar, 
intimating  he  knew  not  but  that  God  might  now  call  him 
out  of  the  World.  Mr.  Eliot '-^  gave  the  Right  Hand  of 
Fellowship,  calling  him  a  Lover  of  Jesus  Christ." 

1  Diary,  I.  76. 

2  The  Apostle  to  the  Indians.     See  Magnalia,  III.  III. 


THE  FALL   OF  THE   CHARTER,  59 

Samuel  Mather  adds  a  characteristic  trait :  — 

"  A  truly  primitive  Ordination!  which  he  never  .  .  .  scru- 
pled the  Validity  of.  After  a  curious  Examination  of  most 
of  the  Fathers  in  the  three  first  Centuries,  he  was  verily 
perswaded  that  every  one  of  them  had  been  perverted  and 
abused  by  designing  Men  to  serve  their  own  Ends,  espe- 
cially in  the  Instance  of  Ordination?'^  ^ 

Ten  days  later,  Sewall  notes  a  "  private  Fast,"  which 
gives  a  glimpse  of  the  manners  of  the  time  :  — 

"  The  Magistrates  .  .  .  with  their  wives  here.  Mr.  Eliot 
prayed,  Mr.  Willard  preached.  I  am  afraid  of  Thy  judg- 
ments.  —  Text  Mother  gave.  Mr.  Allen  prayed  ;  cessation 
half  an  hour.  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  prayed;  Mr.  Mather 
preached,  Ps.  79.  9.^  Mr.  Moodey  prayed  about  an  hour 
and  half ;  Sung  the  79th  Psalm  from  the  8th  to  the  End ; 
distributed  some  Biskets,  &  Beer,  Cider,  Wine.  The  Lord 
hear  in  Heaven  his  dwelling  place" 

How  busy  Cotton  Mather  was  this  year  appears  from 
a  note  he  made  in  December :  — 

"  The  Last  Week  of  the  month  I  preached  on  Lords- 
Day,  Monday,  Tuesday,  Wednesday,  Thursday  in  the  same 
week  Yea,  several  weeks  I  have  in  one  week  preached 
five  times ;  and  once  I  preached  ^2/^  times  in  Two  Days 
which  came  together." 

In  the  course  of  the  year  he  preached  above  a  hun- 
dred carefiiihTwritten  sermons.     At  Ihe  same~timelfe 
"was  constantljTengage d  in  parish  visiting ;  and,  besides 
starting  an  elaborate  method   of  Bible   reading,  and 
pursuing  his  studies,  and  devoting  many  days  to  prayer 

1  Life,  p.  18. 

"^  "  Help  us,  O  God  of  our  salvation,  for  the  glory  of  thy  name  : 
and  deliver  us,  and  purge  away  our  sins,  for  thy  name's  sake." 


6o  COTTON  MATHER. 

and  thanksgiving^  he  had  a  number  of  pupils.  And 
not  content  with  teaching  thesS^lie 

*'  did  successively  use  to  send  for  them,  one  by  one^  into  his 
Study,  and  there  in  the  most  moving,  soft,  obliging,  and  yet 
most  solemn  and  lively  manner  discourse  with  them  about 
their  own  everlasting  Interests  ;  and  he  would  then  bestow 
some  good  Books  on  them  to  further  the  Work  of  God 
.  .  .  upon  their  Spirits:  And  ...  in  every  Recitation  he 
would  .  .  .  make  an  Occasion  to  let  fall  some  Sentence, 
which  might  have  a  tendency  to  promote  the  Fear  of  GOD 
in  their  Souls."  ^ 

His  private  devotions  meanwhile  were  more  pro- 
longed and  more  ecstatic  than  ever;  his  emotional 
condition  throughout  the  year  was  more  and  more 
overwrought.  And  for  this  there  were  several  reasons : 
besides  being  constantly  impressed  with  the  solemnity 
of  the  ordination  which  made  him  at  last  a  fully 
equipped  minister  of  the  Gospel,  and  an  Overseer  of 
Harvard  College,  he  suffered,  as  did  Massachusetts, 
from  not  a  few  buffets  of  Satan.  In  August,  his  sup- 
plications were 

**  especially  to  seek  for  the  guidance  and  Blessing  of  God  in 
what  concerns  the  change  of  my  condition  in  the  world, 
from  Single  to  married;  whereto  I  have  now  many  in- 
vitations.'' 

In  October,  a  similar  state  of  mind  recurred,  slightly 
complicated  by  the  fact  that,  like  his  father,  he  was 
quite  willing  to  die  for  the  salvation  of  any  soul.  Early 
in  November,  he  was  more  concerned  about  matrimony 
than  ever :  he  wanted  to  do  God's  will ;  if  celibacy 
were  God's  will,  he  accepted  it ;  but  he  vowed  that, 
1  S.  Mather,  Life,  p.  40. 


THE  FALL   OF  THE   CHARTER,  6 1 

if  God  would  permit  him  to  marry,  he  would  always 
keep  two  anmial  thanksgivings  with  his  wife.  Late  in 
January  came  another  fast,  very  similar,  more  intense. 
Meanwhile  the  scope  and  variety  of  his  good  resolu- 
tions, of  his  thanksgivings,  of  his  self-searching  med« 
itations,  are  bewildering.  And  he  had  not  a  few 
assurances  of  Divine  presence  with  him. 

The  most  remarkable  of  these  was  apparently  con- 
nected in  his  mind  with  those  public  affairs  which  this 
year  were  so  troublesome.  Some  of  his  records  con- 
cern these.  In  May,  when  James  II.  was  proclaimed, 
two  friends  happened  in  as  he  was  busy  with  a  private 
fast. 

"  I  preached  unto  my  Two  Friends,"  he  writes,  "  Three 
Sermons  each  of  them  about  an  Hour  Long  apeece,  on  a 
Text,  which  was  the  very  first,  that  on  the  opening  of  my 
Bible  for  a  subject  of  Meditation,  came  to  sight:  namely 
Psal.  109.  19.  20,^  which  proved  wonderfully  suitable." 

All  three  resolved  to  do  special  services  for  Christ,  if 
He  would  relieve  His  people  from  the  distresses  now 
upon  them.  In  September,  the  "  calamities  &  confu- 
sions of  the  English  Nation  "  caused  him  to  be  called 
daily  an  hour  earlier  than  usual,  that  he  might  "  Retire 
for  Sighs^  and  prayers,  and  psalms,  to  bee  employed  for 
the  distressed  churches  of  God "  :  within  a  fortnight 
after  tidings  of  the  Lord's  victory,  he  vowed  he  would 
keep  a  special  day  of  thanksgiving,  and  ponder  other 
acknowledgments.  Late  in  January  comes  the  follow- 
ing retrospective  note  :  — 

^  "  Let  it  be  unto  him  as  the  garment  which  covereth  him,  and 
for  a  girdle  wherewith  he  is  girded  continually.  Let  this  be  the 
reward  of  mine  adversaries  from  the  Lord,  and  of  them  that  speak 
evil  against  my  soul." 


62  COTTON  MATHER, 

"The  Glorious  Assurances  which  I  have  enjoyed  and 
uttered,  very  many  times,  for  now  some  years  together, 
about  the  Lords  Appearing  to  deliver  His  people  from 
Impending  Desolations  are  now  answered.  That  monster 
Kirk,  who  was  coming  to  N.  England  with  a  Regiment  of 
Red  Coats,  to  sacrifice  the  best  Lives  among  us,  is  diverted 
from  coming  hither,  by  the  happy  Death  of  that  greater 
Monster,  K.  Charles  IL  And  with  K.  James  IL  Things 
are  operating  towards  such  a  Liberty  for  the  Dissenters  as 
may  for  aught  I  know  bring  the  Restirrection  of  the  Lord's 
witnesses :  it  being  just  three  years  and  a  half  since  their 
Congregations  were  all  Dissipated,  and  a  Thanksgiving  zt\' 
ebrated  thro'  a  wicked  nation  for  it.  Wherefore  Lett  me 
now  procure  as  many  Dayes  of  praise  as  I  can  among  the 
meetings  with  whom  I  have  had  so  many  Dayes  of  prayer 
on  these  occasions." 

This  entry  bears  no  date.  The  one  before  it,  dated 
January  27,  relates  a  prolonged  thanksgiving,  which 
closes  with  a  consideration  of  what  services  Cotton 
Mather  shall  render  to  the  Lord  for  His  mercies  to 
himself  and  to  New  England :  in  particular,  he  con- 
cludes, he  should  "immediately  procure  some  Testi- 
mony, against  some  Common  and  growing  Evils,  which 
offend  him  in  the  land.'*  A  note  of  Sewall's  throws 
some  light  on  this  entry  and  the  next :  — 

"Jan.  2oth.  .  .  .  Cousin  Fissenden  tells  me  there  is  a 
Maid  at  Woburn  who  't  is  feared  is  Possessed  by  an  evil 
Spirit." 

On  the  6th  of  February,  1685-6,  Cotton  Mather 
wrote  as  follows  :  — 

"  It  will  cost  mee  very  Bitter  Toyle  and  paines  yett  per- 
haps I  may  bee  very  serviceable  in  it:  If  I  procure  to  my- 
self an  Exact  Account  of  those  Evil  Hu?/iotirs.  which  the 


THE  FALL   OF  THE  CHARTER.  63 

place  is  at  any  Time  under  the  observeable  Dominion  of. 
And,  whereas  those  Divels  may  bee  cast  out  by  Fasting 
and  prayer y  sett  apart  (first)  a  Day  of  Secret  prayers  with 
F\isting  on  the  occasion  of  each  of  them  :  to  Deprecate  my 
own  guiltiness  therein,  and  supplicate  for  such  Effusions 
of  the  Spirit  from  on  High,  as  may  Redress,  Remove,  and 
Banish  such  Distempers  from  the  placed 

We  have  seen  enough  of  Cotton  Mather  now,  I  think, 
to  understand  at  once  the  tremendous  reality  to  him, 
and  the  bearing  on  what  we  have  just  read  and  on 
what  is  coming,  of  the  record  I  shall  copy  next.  It 
bears  no  date ;  it  is  written  on  the  inner  side  of  the 
cover  —  the  first  leaf — of  the  diary  for  1685  :  — 

'*  Res  Mirabih's  et  Memoranda.  Post  Fusas,  Maximis 
cum  Ardoribus,  Jejunisqu:,  Preces,  apparuit  Angelus,  qui 
Vultum  habuit  solis  instar  Meridiani  micantemt  Caetera 
Humanum,  at  prorsus  imberbem :  Caput  magnificil  TiarS 
obvolutum:  In  Humeris,  ^/^i- .•  ^^j/^j  deinceps  Candidas 
et  Splendidas:  Togam  nempe  Talarem  :  et  Zonam  circa 
Lumbos,  Orientalium  cingulis  non  absimilem.  Dixitqu; 
hie  Angelus,  \  Domino  Jesu,  se  missum,  ut  Responsa 
cujusdam  Juvenis  precibus,  articulatim  afferat,  referatqu : 
Quamplurima  retulit  hie  Ani^elus^  quae  hie  Scribere  non  fas 
est.  Verum  inter  alia  memoratu  digna  ;  Futurum  Hujusce 
Juvenis  Fatum  optime  posse  exprimi,  asseruit  in  illis  Vatis 
Ezekielis  verbis.  Ezek.  31  :  3,  4,  5,  7,  and  9  Behold 
hee  was  a  Cedar  in  Lebanon,  with  fair  bra?tches^  and  with 
a  Shadowing  Shrowd  and  of  an  High  Stature,  and  his 
Top  was  among  the  Thick  Boughs.  The  waters  made  him 
great,  the  Deep  Sett  him  up  on  High  with  her  Rivers 
running  about  his  plants.  His  Heighth  was  Exalted 
above  all  the  Trees  of  the  Field,  and  his  Boughs  were  multi- 
plied, and  his  Branches  became  Long^  because  of  the  Mul- 
titude of  Waters  when  he  shott  forth.  Thtis  was  hee  fair 
in  his  Greatness,  in  the  Length  of  his  Branches,  for  his 


64  CO TTON  MA  THER. 

Root  ivas  by  the  Great  Waters.  Nor  was  any  Tree  in 
the  Garden  of  God  like  unto  him  in  his  Beauty.  I  have 
made  hi7n  fair  by  the  multitude  of  his  Branches^  so  that 
all  the  Trees  of  Edeti^  that  were  in  the  Garde?i  of  God^ 
Envied  him.  Atqu  :  parti culariter  clausulas  de  Rationis 
ejus  extendendis,  exposuit  hie  Angelus,  de  Libris  2ih  hoc 
Juvene  componendis,  et  non  tan  turn  in  Americd,  sed  etiam 
in  Europi,  pubh'candis.  Additqu:  peculiares  quasdam 
praedictiones,  et  pro  Tali  ac  Tanto  peccatore,  vald6  mira- 
biles,  de  Operibus  Insignibus^  quae  pro  Ecclesii  Christi  in 
Revolutionibus  ]-3im  Appropinquantibus,  Hie  Juvenis  olim 
faeturus  est.  Domine  jfesu  /  Quid  sibi  vult  haee  res  tarn 
Extraordinaria  ?  A  Diabolicis  Illusionibus,  obsecro  te, 
Servum  Tuum  Indignissimum,  ut  Liberes  et  Defendas  !  "^ 


^-. 


Thus  we  find  him  at  the  close  of  his  twenty-third 


A  strange  and  memorable  thing.  After  outpourings  of 
prayer,  with  the  utmost  fervour  and  fasting,  there  appeared  an 
Angel,  whose  face  shone  like  the  noonday  sun.  His  features 
were  as  those  of  a  man,  and  beardless ;  his  head  was  encircled 
by  a  splendid  tiara ;  on  his  shoulders  were  wings  ;  his  gar- 
ments were  white  and  shining;  his  robe  reached  to  his  ankles; 
and  about  his  loins  was  a  belt  not  unlike  the  girdles  of  the 
peoples  of  the  East.  And  this  Angel  said  that  he  was  sent 
by  the  Lord  Jesus  to  bear  a  clear  answer  to  the  prayers  of 
a  certain  youth,  and  to  bear  back  his  words  in  reply.  Many 
things  this  Angel  said  which  it  is  not  fit  to  set  down  here.  But 
among  other  things  not  to  be  forgotten  he  declared  that  the 
fate  of  this  youth  should  be  to  find  full  expression  for  what  in 
him  was  best :  and  this  he  said  in  the  words  of  the  prophet 
Ezekiel,  etc.  .  .  .  And  in  particular  this  Angel  spoke  of  the  in- 
fluence his  reason  should  have,  and  of  the  books  this  youth  should 
write  and  publish,  not  only  in  America,  h\i%  in  Europe.  And 
he  added  certain  special  prophecies  of  the  great  works  this 
youth  should  do  for  the  Church  of  Christ  in  the  revolutions  that 
are  now  at  hand.  Lord  Jesus  1  What  is  the  meaning  of  this 
marvel?  From  the  wiles  of  the  Devil,  I  beseech  thee,  deliver 
and  defend  Thy  most  unworthy  servant." 


THE  FALL   OF  THE   CHARTER,  65 

year:  the  youth  in  whom  Cotton  and  Mather  have 
joined  and  shown  themselves  once  more  in  life;  a 
minister  so  busy  that  it  is  still  a  marvel  how  he  found 
time  for  half  the  things  he  did ;  torn  by  emotions 
that  he  believed  to  come  now  from  God,  now  from 
Satan,  —  never  from  anything  less ;  bound  by  covenant 
to  do  great  works  for  the  God  who  had  answered  his 
prayers  for  New  England ;  assured  by  a  celestial  visit- 
ant that  his  works  shall  be  fruitful;  and  with  his 
thoughts  directed  by  a  chance  that  might  well  seem 
providential  to  those  visitations  of  the  Devil  —  so 
strangely  akin  to  his  own  visitations  from  heaven  — 
that  the  doctors  of  his  time  called  witchcraft.  He 
was  very  anxious  to  be  married,  too;  a  fact  which 
probably  had  more  than  he  knew  to  do  with  his  state 
of  mind. 

For  the  year  1686,  troublous  enough  to  New  England, 
was  a  much  more  peaceful  one  for  him.  Almost  his 
first  note  tells  how  he  paid  one  of  his  first  visits  to  a 
young  gentlewoman,  the  daughter  of  worthy  and  pious 
parents  in  Charlestown,  "  unto  an  Acquaintance  with 
whom  the  wonderful  providence  of  God,  in  Answer 
to  many  prayers  directed "  him.  This  was  Abigail, 
daughter  of  the  Honourable  Colonel  Phillips.  He 
writes  at  some  length  his  notions  of  how  godly  his 
wooing  ought  to  be.  He  notes  how  one  Sunday  he 
stayed  at  home  from  Charlestown,  to  preach,  after  the 
custom  of  the  time,  to  a  criminal,^  who  was  to  be  exe- 
cuted during  the  week,  and  was  formally  brought  into 
church  to  hear  his  last  sermon ;    and  how,  as  a  re- 

1  James  Morgan.  See  Sewall's  Diary,  I.  iii,  124-126;  Mag' 
nalia,  VI.  VI.  App.  (VIL). 

5 


00  COTTON  MATHER. 

ward,  this  sermon  was  published.  Cotton  Mather  never 
lost  the  passion  for  seeing  himself  in  print ;  and  this  was 
apparently  the  first  book  he  acknowledged  :  it  was  re- 
printed, with  an  appendix  containing  an  account  of  his 
talk  with  Morgan  on  the  way  to  execution.  He  notes 
later  how  he  examined  himself,  and  made  sure  that  he 
really  preferred  Jesus  to  anything  else,  how  he  prayed 
for  a  comfortable  habitation,  how  he  refrained  from 
asking  the  church  to  raise  his  salary,  how  older  min- 
isters asked  him  to  join  their  prayer-meeting  and 
met  in  his  study.  Then  he  tells  how  a  young  minister 
has  been  disciplined  for  some  fall  from  grace,  and 
prays  that,  if  similar  treatment  of  him  may  do  God 
good,  he  may  be  similarly  treated :  "  Here  I  am,"  he 
writes,  "  Do  with  me  as  Thou  wilt."  He  notes  how 
his  heart  goes  out  toward  neighbours  who  have  a 
low  opinion  of  him ;  he  prays  that  he  may  not  be  a 
vessel  of  dishonour ;  and  that  he  may  be  very  careful 
of  other  people's  reputations.  In  short,  he  shows 
himself  as  thoroughly  in  love  as  an  honest  Puritan 
could  be. 

The  4th  of  May  was  his  wedding-day.  He  got  up 
early,  to  ponder;  but  in  spite  of  his  pondering  he 
reached  Charlestown  ahead  of  time.  So  he  repaired 
to  the  garden  with  his  Bible,  and  read  the  second 
chapter  of  John,^  fetching  "  one  observation  and  one 
supplication  out  of  every  verse  in  that  story."  Then 
the  appointed  time  came,  and  "  the  good  providence 
of  God"  caused  his  wedding  "to  be  attended  with 
many  circumstances  of  respect  and  Honour,  above 
most  that  have  ever  been  in  these  parts  of  the  world." 
^  Tlie  wedding  at  Cana. 


THE  FALL   OF  THE  CHARTER.  6  J 

Next  Sunday  he  preached  at  Charlestown  ;  the  next,  at 
Boston,  on  Divine  Delights,  stoutly  asserting  that  after 
all  the  Bible  was  the  most  delightful  thing  in  his 
experience.  This  was  on  the  very  Sunday  when  Mr. 
Willard  "  prayed  not  for  the  Govemour  "  ;  ^  next  day 
Joseph  Dudley  assumed  the  Presidency. 

For  several  months  Cotton  Mather  lived  with  his 
father-in-law,  serene  in  mood  and  noting  various  prom- 
ises in  Scripture  which  we  should  remember  daily. 

"  The  methods  of  Religion,*'  he  writes,  **  which  the 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  has  heretofore  taught  me,  were  the  most 
that  now,  for  some  considerable  while,  I  contented  myself 
withal.  And  I  wish  that  thro'  my  slothful  and  carnal  Dispo- 
sition, some  of  //les^  also  had  not  begun  to  wither  with  me." 

At  length  he  moved  to  Boston,  where  he  took 

"  An  House  wherein  my  Father  Lived  in  the  years  1677 
and  1 68 1  and  wherein  my  more  Childish  Age  made  many 
Hundreds  of  prayers  unto  the  God  of  Heaven.  I  could 
not  but  observe  the  providence  of  God,  in  Ordering  my 
Comfdrts  now,  in  those  very  Rooms  where  I  had  many 
years  before  sought  him  with  my  prayers." 

A  year  before,  Mr.  Shepard  ^  of  Charlestown,  being 
ill,  had  asked  Cotton  Mather  to  preach  for  him.  "  As 
for  you,  Syr,"  he  had  said  after  church,  *'  I  beg  the  Lord 
to  bee  with  you  unto  the  end  of  the  world."  That  very 
night,  to  the  consternation  of  all  his  friends,  Mr.  Shep- 
ard had  died.  In  September,  1686,  Cotton  Mather 
had  a  startling  dream  :  he  dreamt  he  saw  Mr.  Shepard, 
whom  he  knew  to  have  been  dead  for  above  a  year. 

"  On  that  account,"  he  writes,  "  I  was  contriving  to  slip 
out  of  the  Room ;  whereupon  he  nimbly  coming  up  with 
1  Cf.  page  41.  "  See  Magnalia,  IV.   IX. 


6S  COTTON  MATHER. 

mee,  took  me  by  the  Hand,  and  said,  Syr^  you  need  not 
be  so  shie  of  mee^for  you  shall  qidckly  be  as  I  am^  and 
where  I  am,'''' 

A  short  fit  of  illness  followed,  in  which  Cotton  Mather 
felt  "  the  Foretastes  and  Earnests  of  Life  EternalP 

He  recovered  in  a  somewhat  disturbed  spiritual 
condition;  he  had  an  excessive  ecstasy,  which  made 
him  resolve  to  be  particular  about  the  spiritual  welfare 
of  his  dear  consort  and  her  father.  He  started  some 
Sunday  evening  prayer-meetings,  which  outgrew  his 
house,  and  which,  for  want  of  a  colleague,  he  had 
finally  to  give  up  by  reason  of  their  very  success.  His 
last  note  for  the  year  tells  of  a  thanksgiving  :  he  went, 
he  writes, 

**from  Room  to  Room  in  my  house,  Deliberately  Look- 
ing upon  the  Distinct  parcels  of  the  Estate  whereof  I  am 
now  become  the  Owner,  or  as  I  would  rather  say,  the 
Steward.  And  with  a  Ravished  Soul,  I  gave  Every  Thing 
back  to  God,  variously  contriving  and  so  Declaring  How 
All  that  I  have  should  bee  made  serviceable  unto  his 
glory." 

He  formed  numerous  good  designs  this  day,  too : 
one  was  to  be  kind  to  the  French  refugees,  but  to  stir 
them  up  about  Sabbath-keeping ;  another  was  to  start 
certain  gentlemen  and  certain  rehgious  families  in 
prayer-meetings.  And  he  recorded  two  distinct  res- 
olutions :  — 

*'I.  The  common-prayer  worship  now  being;  sett  up  in 
this  country  I  would  procure  and  assist  the  publication  of  a 
Discourse  written  by  my  Father  that  shall  enlighten  the 
Rising  Generation  in  the  unlawfulness  of  that  Wor^p,  and 
Antidote  them  against  Apostasy  from  the  principles  of  the 


TEE  FALL   OF  THE   CHARTER,  69 

First  Settlement.  II.  And  I  would  prosecute  the  pub- 
lication of  the  Like  Testimony  against  several  other 
superstitions  that  are  now  creeping  in  upon  the  Rising 
generation^'* 

Sir  Edmund  was  Governor  now,  Joseph  Maylem  was 
making  merry  on  Shrove  Tuesday,  and  there  were  peo- 
ple abroad  possessed  of  evil  spirits.  No  one  knew 
quite  what  was  coming.  "  And  thus,"  closes  the  rec- 
ord, "  the  Good  Hand  of  God  brings  mee  to  the  end  of 
my  Twenty  Fourth  year." 


The  Revolution  of  1689  and  the  New  Charter. 

1686-1692. 

Sir  Edmund  Andros,  the  new  Governor,  who  came 
over  vested  with  the  absolute  authority  secured  to 
James  II.  by  the  vacating  of  the  Charter,  was  a  gentle- 
man of  Guernsey,  whose  youth  had  been  passed  in  at- 
tendance on  the  King's  aunt,  the  Queen  of  Bohemia. 
From  1666  to  1680  he  had  served  in  America,  for  the 
last  six  years  of  that  period  as  Governor  of  New  York. 
In  this  capacity  he  had  come  into  collision  with  the 
authorities  of  Connecticut,  who  had  disputed  his  claim 
to  the  country  between  the  Connecticut  River  and  the 
Hudson.  And  what  happened  then  was  enough  to 
impress  him  and  the  people  of  New  England  with 
sentiments  of  mutual  disgust.  In  point  of  fact,  he 
seems  to  have  been  an  honest  gentleman,  a  good 
churchman,  a  man  of  the  world,  and  a  governor  of  no 
small  ability.!  But  no  temperament  and  no  policy 
could  have  been  much  more  foreign  than  his  to 
the  curious  society,  half  theocratic,  half  democratic, 
that  he  came  to  govern  with  an  authority  more  arbi- 
trary than  has  ever  been  assumed  in  New  England, 
before  or  since.  It  is  no  wonder  that,  to  theocrats 
and   democrats   alike,  he   seemed  the  incarnation  of 

^  See  Andros  Tracts,  I.   Memoir  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros.       ■ 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  16S9.  71 

political  villany,  that  in  common  opposition  to  him 
the  theocratic  spirit  and  the  democratic  forgot  for  a 
while  any  differences  of  their  own,  and  that  the  unani- 
mous tradition  of  America  has  preserved  his  memory 
to  the  present  day  as  that  of  a  very  bad  man  indeed. 

His  jurisdiction  was  not  confined  to  Massachusetts, 
but  comprised  the  whole  of  New  England.  Boston,  to 
be  sure,  by  far  the  most  important  town  in  America, 
was  his  capital ;  but  here  he  exerted  a  power  which 
extended  from  Canada  to  the  Hudson.  Putting  aside 
the  charges  of  extortion  and  corruption  and  treason- 
able plotting  with  Indians,  —  probably  honestly  made, 
but  certainly  insufficiently  supported  by  any  extant 
evidence,  —  we  may  perhaps  reduce  the  grave  phases 
of  what  is  still  called  his  tyranny  to  three  :  an  effort  to 
establish  the  Church  of  England;  the  assumption  of 
the  power  of  taxation  without  the  consent  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  and  the  laying  do\vn  of  the  principle,  that  all 
titles  to  land  had  been  vacated  along  with  the  Charter, 
and  so  that  whoever  wanted  a  sound  tide  must  get  his 
claim  confirmed  by  Sir  Edmund,  and  pay  for  it.  When 
certain  people  pleaded  the  privileges  of  Englishmen, 
they  were  told  that  these  things  would  not  follow  them 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth,  and  that  they  had  no  more 
privileges  left  them  but  that  they  were  not  bought  and 
sold  for  slaves.  And  this  I  see  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
Sir  Edmund  very  honestly  believed.  "  In  short,"  says 
Cotton  Mather,^  "  all  was  done  that  might  be  expected 
from  a  Kirk,  Except  the  Bloody  Fart,  But  that  was 
coming  on." 

In  all  probability,  the  Mathers,  along  with  most  good 
1  Parentator,  XXIII. 


72  COTTON  MATHER, 

people  of  New  England,  honestly  thought  their  heads 
in  danger.  That  they  really  were,  there  is  no  evidence 
at  all.  But  it  is  no  wonder  that  so  complete  an  over- 
turn of  the  government  set  all  manner  of  wild  fancies 
afloat.  Increase  Mather  opposed  Andros  in  every 
possible  way,  and  meantime  betook  himself  to  prayer 
for  good  tidings  out  of  England. 

"  I  sought  unto  God,"  he  writes,  early  in  1687,  "  in  se- 
cret with  Tears  that  He  would  send  Reviving  News  out 
of  Efigland:  And  I  could  not  but  Believe  that  He  will 
do  so." 

He  had  not  long  to  wait.  In  April,  1687,  James  11. 
issued  his  Declaration  of  Indulgence.^  Really  de- 
signed, of  course,  to  relieve  the  Catholics,  this  pro- 
claimed liberty  of  conscience,  suspending  all  laws 
against  non- conformity,  and  authorizing  all  British  sub- 
jects to  meet  and  serve  God  in  their  own  way.  How 
grateful  it  was  to  Dissenters,  Cotton  Mather's  own 
words  characteristically  express  :  — 

**//  brought  them  out  of  their  Graves:  And  if  it  as- 
sumed an  Illegal  Power  of  Dispeftsing  with  Laws^  yet  in 
Relation  to  Them^  it  only  dispensed  with  the  Execution  of 
such  Infamous  Laws  as  were  ipso  facto  Null  and  Void  be- 
fore :  Laws  contrary  to  the  Laws  of  God,  and  the  Rights 
and  Claims  of  Human  Nature." 

The  ministers  of  New  England  were  for  a  public 
thanksgiving,  which  Sir  Edmund  forbade,  with  threats 
of  military  force.  On  the  motion  of  Increase  Mather, 
the  churches  of  New  England  drew  up  an  address  of 

^  See  Sewall's  Letter-Book,  I.  52,  note. 


THE  REVOLUTIOiV  OF  16S9.  73 

thanks  to  the  King.  This  it  was  thought  best  to  in- 
trust to  some  "  Well-qualified  Person,''  who  "  might, 
by  the  Help  of  such  Protestant  Dissenters  as  the  King 
began  upon  Political  Views  to  cast  a  fair  Aspect  upon, 
Obtain  some  Relief  to  the  Growing  Distresses  of  the 
Country :  and  Mr.  Mather  was  the  Person  that  was 
pitch'd  upon."  He  referred  the  question  of  his  going 
to  his  church  :  "  They  that  at  another  time  would  have 
almost  assoon  parted  with  their  Eyes  as  have  parted 
with  him  now  were  willing  to  it :  They  Unanimously 
Consented'^  Randolph  made  an  effort  to  stop  him  by 
bringing  against  him  an  action  for  libel,  based  on  a 
letter  in  which  Mather  had  intimated  a  belief  that 
Randolph  had  forged  the  treasonable  document  signed 
with  his  initials  in  1683.^  But  Mather,  having  once 
been  released  by  a  jury,  avoided  a  second  arrest  by 
slipping  out  of  his  house  in  disguise,  and  remaining 
for  a  little  while  in  hiding  at  Colonel  Phillips's,  in 
Charlestown.  On  the  7th  of  April,  1688,  he  managed 
to  board  a  ship,  well  down  the  harbour,  and  so  bore 
away  for  England.  On  the  6th  of  May  he  landed  at 
Weymouth.  His  church  was  left  in  charge  of  his  son 
Cotton.  Harvard  College,  of  which  he  had  been  Presi- 
dent since  1685,  was  left  in  the  hands  of  Leverett  and 
Brattle,  resident  tutors,  and  Fellows  of  the  Corporation. 
The  story  of  Increase  Mather's  mission  in  England 
is  told  at  length  in  the  "  Parentator,"  and  has  been 
admirably  illustrated  by  the  "  Andros  Tracts."  Taken 
from  the  midst  of  the  petty  colonial  society  of  whose 
limits  we  should  by  this  time  have  a  pretty  thorough 
notion ;  placed  in  the  midst  of  the  turmoil,  the  bustle, 

1  Cf.  page  46. 


74  COTTON  MATHER, 

the  intrigue,  of  a  great  capital  and  a  corrupt  court : 
taken  from  the  post  of  an  eminent  leader  in  matters 
ecclesiastical  and  political  alike ;  placed  where  at  best 
he  was  one  of  a  multitude,  struggling  and  plotting  for 
the  notice  and  the  favour  of  the  great.  Increase  Mather 
proved  himself  no  common  man.  Hitherto,  at  least 
in  the  "  Parentator,"  on  which  I  have  chiefly  relied  for 
my  impressions  of  him,  he  has  appeared  as  an  honest, 
godly  Puritan  minister,  doing  his  best  to  maintain  the 
principles  that  are  already  becoming  traditions.  Now, 
without  sacrificing  a  shade  of  his  principle,  without 
^giving  up  those  ecstatic  prayers  and  afflations  which 
whoever  would  understand  the  passionate  enthusiasm 
of  old  Puritanism  must  always  keep  in  mind,  he  shows 
himself  able,  in  a  rare  degree,  to  conduct  the  affairs  of 
men.  In  brief,  his  task  was  to  persuade  a  Catholic 
King,  full  of  belief  in  the  Divine  authority  of  his  absolute 
power,  to  restore,  of  his  free  will,  the  vacated  Charter 
of  Massachusetts.  On  the  30th  of  May  he  presented 
the  Addresses  of  Thanks  to  James  II.,  thus  for  the 
first  time  fulfilling  his  mother's  prophecy.  ^  Two  days 
later  he  had  another  audience  with  the  King,  who 
listened  kindly  to  his  complaints  of  the  conduct  of  An- 
dros.  It  was  James's  purpose,  Cotton  Mather  thinks,^ 
to  set  up  the  Roman  Catholic  religion  in  America.  It 
was  Mather's  purpose  to  secure  a  restoration  of  the 
theocratic  democracy  of  the  fathers,  and  incidentally 
to  procure  for  Harvard  College  a  royal  charter  which 
should  permanently  secure  it  to  the  Calvinistic  dis- 
senters who  had  founded   and  cherished   it.      These 

1  Cf.  page  17.  2  Parentator,  XXV. 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  1689.  75 

purposes  agreed  in  not  being  exactly  those  of  poor 
Sir  Edmund.  James  spoke  kindly,  but  did  nothing; 
Mather  worked  vigorously,  using  every  influence  he 
could  command. 

On  the  2  2d  of  November,  1688,  Sewall  sailed  from 
Boston,  partly  for  the  purpose  of  joining  Mather  in 
London.     His  notes  of  the  voyage  are  pretty  full. 

"  Friday,  Dec.  21,"  runs  one,  "  I  lay  a  [wager]  with  Mr. 
Newgate  that  shall  not  see  any  part  of  Great  Britain  by 
next  Saterday  senight  sunset.  Stakes  are  in  Dr.  Clark's 
hand."  He  won  his  bet.  Still  at  sea,  on  **  Sabbath,  Dec. 
30th.  Spake  with  a  ship.  Tells  us  he  spake  with  an  Eng- 
lish Man  from  Galloway,  last  Friday,  who  said  that  the 
King  was  dead,  and  that  the  Prince  of  Aurang  had  taken 
England,  Landing  six  weeks  agoe  in  Tor  Bay.  Last  night 
I  dreamed  of  military  matters.** 

A  fortnight  more  the  voyage  lasted,  and  each  vessel 
they  spoke  gave  some  new  version  of  the  great  news. 
In  point  of  fact,  William  had  landed  on  the  5  th  of 
November,  James  had  fled  from  London  on  the  23d 
of  December;  and  on  *' Sabbath,  Jan.  13th,"  when 
Sewall  finally  went  ashore  at  Dover,  to  "  hear  2  Ser- 
mons from  Isaiah,  66.  9,"  ^  the  Revolution  was  accom- 
plished. Two  weeks  later,  William  and  Mary  were 
proclaimed. 

On  the  4th  of  April,  1689,  a  young  man  named  John 
Winslow  arrived  in  Boston  from  the  island  of  Nevis, 
with  a  copy  of  the  Declaration  issued  by  the  Prince  of 
Orange  on  his  landing  in  England.     Sir  Edmund,  hear- 

*  "  Shall  I  bring  to  the  birth,  and  not  cause  to  bring  forth  ? 
saith  the  Lord :  Shall  I  cause  to  bring  forth,  and  shut  the 
womb  ?   saith  thy  God." 


76  COTTON  MA  THER. 

ing  the  news,  sent  for  him,  and  tried  to  silence  him 
by  threats  and  promises  \  faihng,  he  committed  him  to 
prison  "for  bringing  traitorous  and  treasonable  libels 
and  papers  of  news."  But  it  was  no  use.  The  people 
of  Massachusetts  were  ripe  for  revolution.  Palfrey  tells 
the  story  very  graphically.^  On  the  i8th  of  April, 
Boston  rose  in  arms,  seized  the  chief  magistrates,  be- 
sieged Sir.  Edmund  in  the  Castle,  dismantled  the  Rose 
frigate,  and  took  possession  of  the  government  in  the 
name  of  "  His  Highness  "  (the  Prince  of  Orange)  and 
"the  English  ParUament."  To  appreciate  the  full 
boldness  of  this  bloodless  revolution,  we  must  remem- 
ber that  no  rumor  of  the  Prince's  fortunes  had  reached 
New  England,  and  that  every  man  of  those  who  put 
themselves  at  the  head  of  the  movement  knew  that, 
if,  as  might  well  be,  James  had  prevailed  in  England, 
their  action  would  probably  cost  them  their  heads. 
For  all  this,  the  magistrates  who  had  last  served  under 
the  vacated  Charter  resumed  the  power  provisionally. 
Samuel  Mather  ^  says  that  they  did  it  lest  inaction  on 
their  part  should  result  in  bloody  work  by  less  prudent 
leaders.  It  was  their  fortune  to  be  justified  by  what 
had  happened  abroad.  On  the  26th  of  May,  a  ship 
arrived  with  orders  to  proclaim  William  and  Mary; 
on  the  29th,  they  were  proclaimed.  And  Sir  Ed- 
mund, with  Joseph  Dudley  and  the  rest  of  his  crew, 
as  Cotton  Mather  called  them,  were  fast  prisoners  in 
Boston  Casde.  And  absolute  authority  in  New  Eng- 
land had  seen  its  last  day. 

1  Book  III.  Chapter  XV. 

2  Life  of  Cotton  Mather,  II.  2.  2.     This  passage  is  probably 
the  most  valuable  historically  in  the  lifeless  book. 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  1GS9.  77 

The  next  service  that  Increase  Mather^  did  for 
New  England  was  —  at  least  for  his  contemporaries  — 
perhaps  the  most  notable  of  all.  On  the  accession  of 
William  and  Mary,  a  circular  letter  was  drawn  up  to  all 
the  Colonies,  confirming  the  old  governors  until  fur- 
ther order.  Had  this  been  sent  to  New  England,  it 
would  have  reinstated  Sir  Edmund  ;  and  how  that  hot- 
tempered  gentleman  might  have  conducted  himself 
towards  his  enemies  nobody  knows.  By  some  means, 
Mather  succeeded  in  stopping  it,  and  in  leaving  au- 
thority temporartly  in  the  hands  of  the  provisional 
government.  In  the  end,  Sir  Edmund  and  his  crew 
were  shipped  to  England  for  trial.  Far  from  con- 
demnation, they  were  received  there  with  favour.  Sir 
Edmund  was  soon  made  Governor  of  Virginia ;  Joseph 
Dudley  was  made  Chief  Justice  of  New  York,  and  later 
Lieutenant  Governor  of  the  Isle  of  Wight ;  later  still 
he  became  a  member  of  Parliament.  But  New  Eng- 
land saw  Sir  Edmund  no  more  :  as  for  poor  Randolph, 
all  we  hear  further  of  him  is  that  he  jdied  in  Virginia, 
so  miserably  that  only  two  or  three  f^egroes  attended 
his  funeral ;  ^  and  Dudley  for  the  moment  had  his 
hands  agreeably  full  abroad.  There  is  good  reason, 
I  think,  to  believe  that  this  peaceable  issue  of  what 
might  have  been  a  very  tragic  matter  was  due  chiefly 
to  Mather's  diplomacy. 

There  were  now  high  hopes  in  New  England  that 
the  Charters  would  be  restored.  To  prove  their  loy- 
alty, the  Colonies  fitted  out  an  expedition  against  Port 

1  For  all  facts  about  Increase  Mather  in  the  rest  of  this  chap- 
ter, see  Parentator,  XXVL,  XXVII. 

2  Parentator.  XXIV. 


78  COTTON  MATHER, 

Royal,  and  temporarily  annexed  to  the  British  domin- 
ions the  country  that  is  now  Nova  Scotia.  Encour- 
aged by  this,  they  followed  it  by  a  still  more  formida- 
ble expedition  against  Quebec,  under  the  command, 
like  the  former,  of  the  redoubtable  Sir  William  Phipps. 
But  this  armament  came  to  grief  in  the  St.  Lawrence, 
going  far  to  unmake  the  favourable  impression  estab- 
lished by  the  previous  success.  And  the  country  was 
generally  in  a  disturbed  condition,  doubtful  as  to  what 
form  its  government  might  take,  harassed  on  its  bor- 
ders by  French  and  Indians,  and  infested  along  the 
coast  by  the  pirates  whose  traditional  hoards  still  ex- 
cite the  interest  of  credulous  treasure-seekers.  It  is  to 
this  epoch,  though  not  precisely  to  this  moment,  that 
we  owe  the  fame  of  Captain  Kidd. 

In  England,  meanwhile,  Increase  Mather  —  preach- 
ing, praying,  making  the  best  of  his  way  among  what 
Dissenters  were  in  favour  at  court  —  was  doing  his  ut- 
most to  secure  the  restoration  of  the  Charters.  He 
waited  on  the  King  more  than  once,  to  be  received  with 
marked,  though  guarded  civility.  He  waited  on  the 
Queen,  when  the  King  was  gone  to  Holland,  and, 
pressing  the  claims  of  the  New  England  Dissenters, 
heard  from  her  lips  what  Cotton  Mather  calls  a  "  Divine 
Sentence "  :  "I  wish  all  good  men  were  of  one  mind ; 
however,  in  the  mean  time  I  would  have  them  live 
peaceably,  and  love  one  another."  But  all  he  could 
do  brought  his  business  little  further.  William  of 
Orange  was  a  good  Calvinist,  but  no  Republican :  he 
was  willing  enough  to  say  civil  things  to  New  England, 
but  by  no  means  disposed  to  make  a  prosperous  part 
of  his  dominions  virtually  independent.      The  ^onger 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  16S9.  79 

Mather  waited,  the  clearer  it  became  to  him,  if  not  to 
his  colleagues  in  the  mission,  that  the  best  he  could 
do  for  Massachusetts  was  to  secure  for  it  the  best 
Charter  he  could  induce  the  King  to  sign.  The  old 
Charter  was  hopelessly  lost. 

Such  was  the  state  of  affairs  at  the  beginning  of  the^ 
year  1692,  —  the  next  for  which  Cotton  Mather*s  diar 
is  preserved.^  What  impressions  I  have  of  his  per 
sonal  career  for  these  five  years,  then,  I  gather  from 
-  outside  sources.  In  the  first  place,  we  shall  do  well  to 
remember  the  situation  in  which  he  found  himself  at 
^^the  ag£  of  twenty-five.  Full  of  traditional  belief  in  the 
(^pivine  authority  of  his  professional  work,  he  was  left,  by 
the  absence  of  his  father  on  the  most  important  public 
business  ever  yet  confided  to  a  native  of  New  England, 
in  full  charge  of  one  of  the  greatest  churches  in  Amer- 
ica. There  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that,  according  to 
the  standard  of  his  time,  he  was  a  scholar  unapproached 
by  any  one  of  his  age  :  that  is,  he  had  read  more  books 
than  anybody  else,  he  was  reading  more  day  by  day, 
and  he  was  already  launched  in  that  career  of  author- 
ship which  made  him  at  last  the  most  voluminous  of 
American  writers.  And  the  state  of  public  affairs, 
bringing  theocracy  and  democracy  for  the  moment  into 
complete  accord,  and  throwing  political  as  well  as 
spiritual  leadership  once  more  —  and  for  the  last  time  — 
c chiefly  into  the  hands  of  the  clergy,  gave  his  words 
and  actions  such  public  authority  as  he  never  enjoyed 
again.     All  the  while,  too,,  there   is  every  reason   to 

^  In  possession  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society.  Occa- 
sional citations  in  print  seem  to  show  that  some  of  the  intermediate 
diaries  may  be  preserved.     But  I  have  not  come  across  them. 


8o  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

believe  that  his  ecstatic  prayers  and  fastings  kept  him 
in  what  he  never  doubted  was  direct  communication 
with  the  angels  of  God. 

Sewall's  Diary  gives  a  few  glimpses  of  his  public 
preaching,  and  of  pastoral  visits  all  the  more  notable 
for  the  fact  that  Sewall  was  a  member,  not  of  Mather's 
church,  but  of  Mr.  Willard's,  the  Old  South.  One  of 
his  sermons,  in  1687,  taught  Sewall  a  practical  lesson 
of  which  he  made  immediate  use. 

"Went  to  Roxbury,"  runs  Sewall's  note,*  "and  heard 
Mr.  Cotton  Mather  preach  from  Colos.  4.  5,  Redeeming 
the  Time.2  Shew'd  that  should  improve  Season  for  doing 
and  receiving  good  whatsoever  it  cost  us.  His  Excel- 
lency 8  was  on  the  Neck,  as  came  by,  cali*d  Him  in  and 
gave  Him  a  glass  of  Beer  and  Claret  and  delivered  a  Peti- 
tion respecting  the  Narraganset  Lands." 

Three  years  later,  Sewall  heard  another  of  his  ser- 
mons with  less  satisfaction. 

"March  19,  1690,"  he  writes,  "Mr.  C.  Mather  preaches 
the  lecture  from  Mat.  24,  and  appoint  his  portion  with  the 
Hypocrites.*  In  his  proem  said,  Totiis  muftdus  a^it  his- 
triofiem,^  Said  one  sign  of  a  hypocrit  was  for  a  man  to 
strain  at  a  Gnat  and  swallow  a  Camel.  Sign  in's  Throat 
discovered  him;  To  be  zealous  against  an  inocent  fashion, 
taken  up  and  used  by  the  best  of  men ;  and  yet  make  no 

1  Diary,  I.  181. 

2  ♦'  Walk  in  wisdom  towards  them  that  are  without,  redeeming 
the  time." 

2  Andros. 

<  Matt.  24.  51.  "  [The  lord  of  that  servant]  shall  cut  him 
asunder,  and  appoint  him  his  portion  with  the  hypocrites  :  there 
shall  be  weeping  and  gnashing  of  teeth." 

^  Everybody  plays  a  part. 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  1689.  8 1 

Conscience  of  being  guilty  of  great  Immoralities.  Tis  sup- 
posed means  wearing  of  Perriwigs  :  ^  said  would  deny  them- 
selves in  any  thing  but  parting  with  an  oportunity  to  do 
God  service;  that  so  might  not  offend  good  Christians. 
Meaning,  I  suppose,  was  fain  to  wear  a  Perriwig  for  his 
health.  I  expected  not  to  hear  a  vindication  of  Perriwigs 
in  Boston  Pulpit  by  Mr.  Mather  ;  however,  not  from  that 
Text.  The  Lord  give  me  a  good  heart  and  help  to  know, 
and  not  only  to  know  but  also  to  doe  his  Will;  that  my 
Heart  and  Head  may  be  his." 

Of  Cotton  Mather's  domestic  life,  meanwhile,  I  find 
but  two  or  three  stray  notes.  Three  daughters  were 
born  to  him  before  1693  i  ^^^  one  of  them  died.  In 
1688,  he  was  much  excited  by  a  case  of  witchcraft  in 
Boston,  and  for  a  while  had  one  of  the  possessed  girls 
in  his  o\vn  house.  The  same  year  his  brother  Nathan- 
iel died,  —  a  very  godly  youth,  who,  if  we  may  tmst 
the  account  of  him  which  Cotton  Mather  published,^ 
systematically  studied  and  worried  himself  Jto  death. 
One  of  his  notes,  which  Cotton  Mather  quotes,  gives 
a  curious  insight  into  his  character.  He  is  lamenting, 
in  terms  which  suggest  all  manner  of  misdeed,  the  sins 
of  his  boyhood. 

"  Of  the  manifold  sins  which  then  I  was  guilty  of,"  he 
goes  on,  "none  so  sticks  upon  me  as  that,  being  very 
young,  I  was  whitling  on  the  Sabbath-day ;  and  for  fear 
of  being  seen,  I  did  it  behind  the  door.  A  great  reproach 
of  God!  a  specimen  of  that  atheism  that  I  brought  into 
the  world  with  me." 

Samuel  Mather  *  is  the  chief  authority  concerning  the 

1  Cf.  page  34.  In  his  only  existing  portrait,  Cotton  Mather 
wears  a  remarkably  full  wig. 

2  Magnalia,  IV.  X.  8  Life,  II.  2.  2. 


82  COTTON  MATHER, 

part  Cotton  Mather  played  in  the  Revolution  of  1689. 
Before  the  outbreak,  he  says,  "  the  principal  Gentlemen 
of  Boston  met  with  Mr.  Mather  to  consult  what  was  best 
to  be  done :  and  they  all  agreed,  if  possible,  that  they 
would  extinguish  all  Essays  in  our  People  to  an  Insur- 
rectiony  In  case  of  an  outbreak,  however,  they  deter- 
mined to  prevent  undue  violence  by  putting  themselves 
at  the  head  of  it.  **  And  a  Declaration  was  prepared 
accordingly."  ^  At  a  public  meeting  of  the  inhabitants 
of  Boston,  shortly  before  the  outbreak,  Cotton  Mather 
succeeded  in  calming  the  people  by  an  "  affectionate 
and  moving  Speech  ...  at  which  many  fell  into  Tears 
and  the  whole  Body  .  .  .  present  immediately  united  in 
the  Methods  of  Peace  Mr.  Mather  proposed  unto  them." 
In  spite  of  this  he  was  to  have  been  committed  to  prison 
for  his  politics  on  the  very  day  when  the  insurrection 
broke  out :  on  that  day  and  the  exciting  ones  that 
followed,  he  devoted  all  his  energies,  with  success,  to 
hindering  "the  Peoples  proceeding  any  further  than 
to  reserve  the  Criminals  for  the  Justice  of  the  English 
Parliament."  On  the  whole,  Samuel  Mather's  last 
remark  on  this  subject  is  the  most  notable. 

*'  Upon  Discoursing  with  him  of  the  Affairs,"  it  runs, 
*'he  has  told  me  that  he  always  pressed  Peace  2iV\6.  Love 
and  Submission  unto  a  legal  Government,  tho'  he  suffered 
from  some  tumultuous  People,  by  doing  so;  and  upon  the 
whole,  has  asserted  unto  me  his  Innocency  and  Freedom 
from  all  known  hiiqiiity  in  that  time,  but  declared  his  Reso- 
lution, from  the  View  he  had  of  the  fickle  Humors  of  the 
Populace,  that  he  would  chuse  to  be  concerned  with  them 
as  little  as  possible  for  the  future." 

1  See  Andres  Tracts,  I.  20.  This  paper  has  been  attributed 
to  Cotton  Mather, 


THE.  REVOLUTION  OF  1689.  S^ 

Apart  from  this,  I  get  my  chief  impression  of  him 
during  this  interval  from  the  Ust  of  his  works  in  Sib- 
ley's "  Harvard  Graduates."  Indeed,  there  are  but 
two  definite  facts  that  I  have  noted  from  any  other 
authority.  One  is,  that  on  the  12th  of  June,  1690,  he  \ 
was  elected  a  Fellow  of  Harvard  College.^  I  doubt  if 
the  Corporation  has  ever  had  a  younger  member.^  The 
other  is,  that  in  November  of  the  same  year,  when 
there  was  a  dispute  between  hot-tempered  Sir  William 
Phipps  and  his  prisoner,  M.  de  Meneval,  the  captured 
Governor  of  Port  Royal,  concerning  certain  moneys  on 
which  Sir  William  had  laid  hand,  "Mr.  Moody  and 
Mr.  Mather  .  .  .  had  very  sharp  discourse ;  Mr.  Mather 
very  angrily  said  that  they  who  did  such  things  as  suf- 
fering Sir  William  to  be  corrected  by  Meneval  were 
Frenchmen,  or  the  people  would  say  they  were,  etc."  ^ 
Cotton  Mather  had  a  temper  of  his  own,  it  seems, 
which  sometimes  got  the  better  of  him.  But  the  more 
serious  side  of  his  personal  life  between  1687  and  1692 
shows  itself  chiefly  in  his  writings.  From  "  Military 
Duties"  —  a  sermon  preached  in  September,  1686, 
but  not  published  till  the  next  year — to  the  "Mid- 
night Cry,"  —  the  last  of  his  publications  during  the 
period  covered  by  this  chapter,  —  Sibley  mentions 
twenty-nine  titles.  Of  these,  one  appeared  in  1687, 
seven  in  1689,  ten  in  1690,  nine  in  1691,  and  two  in 
the  beginning  of  1692.  Twenty  of  the  twenty-nine 
were  sermons,  including  some  political  sermons,  and 
three  funeral  discourses,  —  two  of  which  were  enlarged 
into  the  biographies  of  Nathaniel  Mather  and  of  the 

J  Sewairs  Diary,  I.  322.  *  27  years,  4  months. 

*  Sewall's  Diary,  I.  ^-^g. 


84  COTTON  MATHER.^ 

Apostle  Eliot,  which  appeared  again  in  the  Magnalia ; 
two  dealt  with  the  Quakers ;  five  concerned  devotional 
matters  in  general ;  and  two  —  "  Memorable  Prov- 
idences," first  published  in  1689,  and  "  Late  Memo- 
rable Providences,"  published  in  1691  —  concerned 
witchcraft.^  From  the  moment  that  his  glorious  assur- 
ances were  justified  by  the  news  that  King  Charles  was 
dead  and  Kirk's  coming  averted  in  1685,  this  matter 
seems  to  have  been  much  on  his  mind.  He  was 
bound  by  covenant  to  do  special  work  for  the  Lord, 
and  here  was  special  work  to  be  done. 

So  we  come  to  that  portion  of  his  diary  for  1692 
which  belongs  in  this  chapter.  Like  the  other  vol- 
umes I  have  noted,  this  one  is  not  the  original,  but  an 
abridged  copy  in  his  own  hand  of  what  portions  he 
deemed  worth  preserving.  And  it  is  certainly  true  that 
the  notes  he  has  copied  for  this  year  are  less  specific 
and  fewer  than  usual.  To  those  who  hate  his  mem- 
ory, and  they  are  not  few,  this  fact  should  count 
against  him ;  for  my  part,  as  I  have  said,  the  better  I 
grow  to  know  him,  the  more  honest  I  believe  his  in- 
tentions. I  shall  note  very  briefly  all  that  I  have  found 
in  the  earlier  part  of  this  manuscript  volume. 

^'This  year  finds  me,"  it  begins,  "  in  my  public  Aynistry 
handling  the  Miracles  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  .  .  . 
Who  can  tell,  what  miraculous  Things,  I  may  see,  before 
this  year  bee  out  ?  '* 

The  next  thing  he  notes  is,  that  he  has  induced  a 
meeting  of  ministers  at  Cambridge  to  vote  that  the 
churches  shall  make  catalogues  of  **  such  things  as  can 

1  Increase  Mather's  "  Remarkable  Providences  "  had  appeared 
in  16S4, 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  1689,  85 

indisputably  bee  found  amiss  among  them,"  and  then 
shall  relentlessly  put  them  down.  Mcst  of  the  churches 
r^iiitt^"^  l^^^^^'/JJl  ^^  ^hjsj^^^f  But  Mather  himself 
drew  up  an  instrument  denouncing  sixteen  distinct 
common  evils  and  transgressions  of  the  covenant.  He 
preached  about  this ;  he  wove  it  into  his  prayers ;  and  on  ^ 
the  2d  of  April  it  was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  the  North 
Church.  He  had  it  printed,  and  conveyed  the  little  book 
to  every  communicant.  On  the  29th  of  April,  he  held 
a  day  of  secret  humiliation  and  prayer.  His  prayers  for 
the  Holy  Spirit  were  answered  with  assurances.  He 
went  on  to  recount  the  abasing  circumstances  of  the 
land,  to  pray  for  the  awakening  of  the  churches,  par- 
ticularly by  himself;  therefore  he  prayed  above  all  for 
the  smiles  of  God  on  his  "  Midnight  Cry,"  "  which  was 
just  then  coming  out  of  the  press."  He  obtained  of 
God  an  assurance  that 

**  Hee  will  make  use  of  me,  as  of  a  John,  to  bee  an 
'  Herald  of  the  Lord's  Kingdom  now  approaching.  .  .  .  But 
my  prayers,*'  he  goes  on,  "did  especially  insist  upon  the 
horrible  Enchantments  and  possessions  broke  forth  upon 
Salem  Village,  —  things  of  a  most  prodigious  Aspect.  A 
good  issue  to  these  things  and  my  own  Direction  and 
protection  thereabout   I  did  especially  petition  for." 

His  next  note,  undated,  tells  that  his  health  is  "  lam- 
entably broken,  .  .  .  partly  by  my  Excessive  Toyle  in  the 
public  and  private  Exercises  of  my  Calling,  but  chiefly, 
I  fear,  by  my  Sins  against  the  God  of  my  Health."  In 
spite  of  this,  and  of  preaching  when  he  "  had  been 
fitter  to  have  been  in  my  bed,"  he  has  had  great  assist- 
ances in  the  pulpit ;  "  and  come  easier  out  of  the 
pulpit  than  I  went  into  it."  Whoever  has  had  crazy 
nenes  knows  what  that  means. 


86  COTTON  MATHER, 

"  But  now,"  he  goes  on,  "  Illnesse  and  Vapours,  with  an 
Aguish  Indisposition,  grows  upon  me  at  such  a  rate  that 
indeed  I  Live  in  Exceeding  Misery:  and  I  can  see  nothing 
but  a  Speedy  Death  approaching.  Blessed  be  God^  that  I 
can  Dy  /  " 

"  But  the  time  for  Favour  was  now  come  !"  runs  the  next 
note  I  have  copied,  "  the  Sett  Time  was  Come  !  I  am 
now  to  Receive  the  answer  of  so  many  prayers  as  had  been 
employed  for  my  absent  parent ;  and  for  the  Deliverance 
and  settlement  of  my  poor  Countrey,  for  which  hee  had 
been  Employed  in  so  long  an  Agencie.  We  have  not  the 
former  Charter,  but  wee  have  a  Better  in  the  Room  of  it  : 
one  which  much  better  suits  our  Circumstances.  And  in- 
stead of  my  being  made  a  Sacrifice  to  Wicked  Rulers,  all 
the  councellours  of  the  province  are  of  my  own  Father's 
Nomination." 

Among    them   were   his    father-in-law  and   several 
brethren  of  his  church.     And  the  Governor  was  .Six.^ 
William  Phipp^  one  whom  he  himself  had  baptized,  in 
March,  1690.^ 

In  fact,  the  four  years*  work  of  Increase  Mather 
had  reached  a  successful  issue  in  October,  1691. 
Convinced  that  nothing  could  revive  the  old  Charter, 
he  had  done  all  he  could  to  make  the  new  one  as  good 
as  possible.  The  appointment  of  the  Governor,  and 
the  final  power  of  veto,  were  left  with  the  King ;  the 
franchise  was  made  a  matter  no  longer  of  church- 
membership,  but  of  freeholds  :  but  the  people  were  to 
elect  the  Governor's  Council ;  and  above  all,  the  power 
of  taxation  was  vested  in  the  bodies  they  elected. 
Mather's  colleagues  refused  to  accept  the  inevitable  : 
they  came  back  to  New  England,  ready  to  stir  up  feel- 
1  See  Magnalia,  Life  of  Sir  William  Phipps. 


THE  REVOLUTION  OF  1689.  87 

ing  against  him.  And  Sewall  notes  that  as  early  as 
February  8,  169 1-2,  when  the  first  copy  of  the  new 
Charter  reached  Boston,  there  was  much  discourse. 
But  Mather's  diplomatic  tact  had  actually  enabled  him 
to  name  the  chief  officers  who  were  to  put  the  gov- 
ernment into  operation;  and  the  good  man  came 
home  to  his  good  son  with  the  full  conviction  that 
now  at  last  good  people  were  to  have  their  way  in 
New  England. 

"  May  14th,  1692,"  writes  Sewall,  **  Sir  William  arrives 
in  the  Nonsuch  Frigat :  Candles  are  lighted  before  he 
gets  into  Town-house.  Eight  companies  wait  on  Him  to 
his  house,  and  then  on  Mr.  [Increase]  Mather  to  his. 
Made  no  volleys  because  't  was  Satterday  night." 

Next  day,  though  ill  and  unprepared.  Cotton  Mather 
preached  on  **the  Lord's  passing  over  the  water," 
with  much  assistance  from  Heaven. 

"  Monday,  May  16,"  writes  Sewall,  *  Eight  Companies 
and  two  from  Charlestown  guard  Sir  William  and  his 
Councillours  to  the  Townhouse,  where  the  Coiriissions 
were  read  and  Oaths  taken.  I  waited  on  the  Dept.  Gov- 
ernour  to  Town,  and  there  was  met  by  Brother  Short  .  .  . 
who  informed  me  of  the  dangerous  illness  of  my  father, 
so  ...  I  was  not  present  at  the  Solemnity:  found  my 
father  much  better.  At  Ipswich,^  as  we  were  going,  saw 
a  Rainbow  just  about  Sunset." 

"Thus,"  writes  Cotton  Mather  the  same  day,  "have 
I  seen  the  wonderful  effects  of  prayer  and  Faith ;  and 
now  I  will  call  upon  the  Lord  as  Long  as  I  Live." 

1  The  elder  Sewall  lived  at  Newbury. 


VI. 

Witchcraft. 

1692-1693. 

\  What  happened,  in  the  next  two  years  was  of  less 
consequence  to  New  England  than  the  matters  we 
have  been  considering.  To  Cotton  Mather,  however, 
and  to  the  cause  which  throughout  his  life  he  had 
most  at  heart,  —  the  preservation,  the  restoration,  of 
J  the  pure  polity  of  the  fathers,  —  these  two  years  were 
4  fatal.  It  was  the  great  tragedy  of  witrhrraft^T  y^rlg; 
that  finally  broke  the  power  of  theocracy :  it  was 
almost  surely  the  part  Cotton  Mather  played  in  it  that, 
made  his  life,  for  the  five  and  thirty  years  that  were 
left  him,  a  life  —  at  least  publicly  —  of  constant,  cres- 
cent failure.  Tragic  even  if  we  join  with  those  who 
read  in  the  records  left  us  no  more  worthy  story  than 
that  of  frustrated  ambition,  his  career  takes  an  aspect 
of  rare  tragic  dignity  if  in  his  endless,  undiscouraged 
efforts  to  do  God's  work  we  can  honestly  see  what  he 
tells  us  was  there,  —  an  all- mastering  faith  that  the 
fathers  were  divinely  right,  that  all  which  tended  away 
from  tteir  teaching  was  eternally  wrong,  and  that  his 
own  failure  meant  nothing  less  than  the  failure  of  the 
kingdom  of  Christ  in  a  land  whither  Christ's  servants 
had  come  with  high  hopes  that  here,  as  nowhere  else 
on  earth,  Christ's  kingdom  should  prevail. 


WITCHCRAFT,  89 

SirWilliam  Phipps,  the  new  Governor,^  is  in  certain 
aspects  a  most^  romantic  figure.  The  obscure  son  of 
a  settler  in  the  wilds  of  Maine,  he  was  first  an  appren- 
tice to  a  ship-carpenter :  coming  to  Boston  early  in 
manhood,  he  learned  there  to  read  and  write,  and 
soon  married  a  widow  of  position  and  fortune  de- 
cidedly above  his  own.  Prospering  for  a  while  as  a 
shipbuilder,  he  soon  took  to  the  sea ;  and  by  the  year 
1684  he  had  so  distinguished  himself  that  he  was  put  4 
in  command  of  a  frigate,  in  which  he  sailed  to  the 
West  Indies  in  search  of  a  wrecked  Spanish  treas- 
ure-ship. After  various  adventures  and  mutinies,  he 
actually  discovered  the  wreck.  He  brought  back  to 
England  treasure  to  the  amount  of  three  hundred 
thousand  pounds,  in  return  for  which  feat  he  was 
knighted  by  James  II.  And  in  Sir  Edmund  Andros*s 
time  he  came  home  to  Boston  with  a  comfortable  for- 
tune of  his  own  and  the  office  of  High  Sheriff  of  New 
England.  By  no  means  in  sympathy  with  the  Gov- 
OTYDf, 'lie  soon  went  back  to  England  for  a  while, 
wliefe  he  had  more  or  less  to  do  with  Increase  Mather. 
In  1690  he  was  again  in  Boston,  where,  as  we  have 
seen  before,  he  took  command  of  the  successful  ex- 
pedition against  Port  Royal.  The  first  real  rebuff  in 
the  career  of  this  archetype  of  self-made  Yankees  was 
the  failure  of  the  expedition  which,  too  late  in  the 
same  year,  he  led  against  Quebec.  Undiscouraged, 
he  went  back  to  England  with  plans  for  a  fresh  expe- 
dition against  the  French.  This  came  to  nothing ; 
but  Increase  Mather,  who  saw  much  of  him  in  Lon- 
don, pitched  on  him,  and  obtained  the  approval  of 
King  William    for   him,    as  the    man  of  men  to  be 


90  COTTON  MATHER. 

the   first  Governor  of  the  royal  Province  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 

It  would  have  been  hard  to  find  a  governor  who 
should  promise  more  for  the  poUty  to  which  the  Math- 
ers gave  every  energy  of  their  Hves.  A  man  of  the 
people,  conspicuous  above  any  one  else  of  his  time  for 
just  that  kind  of  material  success  which  most  touches 
the  popular  imagination,  Sir  William,  though  hot- 
.  headed  and  full  of  the  pompous  tyranny  of  the  quarter- 
deck, seems  to  have  had  one  of  those  big,  hearty, 
human  natures  which  command  liking  even  where  one 
cannot  approve.  He  might  be  expected  at  once  to 
command  the  sympathy  of  the  people,  who  would  see 
in  him  an  example  of  what  any  one  of  them  might  be- 
come, and  to  be  very  firm  in  his  determination  to  have 
his  own  way.  If  such  a  man  be  on  the  right  course, 
he  will  carry  things  farther  than  any  other  kind.  And, 
like  most  self-made  Yankees,  Sir  William  was  on  ex- 
actly the  right  course,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the 
clergy.  As  a  class,  self-made  men  to  this  day  grow  up 
with  a  rather  blind  faith  in  the  superiority  to  other 
men  of  ministers  of  the  Gospel :  in  worldly  moments 
they  may  smile  at  their  spiritual  advisers  as  impracti- 
cal ;  but  they  go  to  church,  and  when  it  comes  to 
spending  their  money  they  are  very  apt  to  spend  it  as 
the  minister  tells  them  to.  And  more  than  most  self- 
made  men  Sir  William  looked  up  to  the  clergy,  and 
most  of  all  the  clergy  to  the  Mathers.  It  was  Increase 
Mather's  sermon  on  **  The  day  of  trouble  is  near,"  in 
1674,^  that  first  made  him  sensible  of  his  sins;  it  was 
by  Cotton  Mather,  just  before  the  expedition  to  Port 

1  Cf.  page  26. 


Witchcraft,  91 

Royal,  in  1690,  that  he  was  baptized  and  received  into 
the  communion  of  the  faithful ;  it  was  to  Increase 
Mather  that  he  owed  the  office  which  crowned  his 
worldly  ambition.  Clearly  such  a  man  as  this  might 
be  trusted,  if  anybody  might,  to  do  the  will  of  God  as 
the  Mathers  expounded  it.  And  the  Mathers  meant  to 
expound  it  in  the  good  old  orthodox  way;  and  the 
new  Charter  gave  the  Governor  more  power  than  he 
had  ever  had  under  the  old ;  so  there  was  never  a 
moment  when  the  hopes  of  Christ's  kingdom  looked 
brighter. 

f  To  understand  what  followed,  we  may  well  recall 
some  things  at  which  we  have  glanced  already.  In  the 
view  of  the  Puritans,  the  continent  of  America,  whither 
they  came  to  live  in  accordance  with  no  laws  but  those 
of  Scripture,  had  been  until  their  coming  the  special 
territory  of  the  Devil.  Here  he  had  ruled  for  centu- 
ries, unmolested  by  the  opposing  power  of  the  Gospel :/ 
whoever  doubted  this  had  only  to  look  at  the  degrada^ 
tion  of  his  miserable  subjects,  the  native  Indians,  to  be 
pretty  well  convinced.  The  landing  of  the  Puritans 
was  a  direct  invasion  of  his  territories.  He  fought  it 
in  all  manner  of  ways,  —  material  and  spiritual.  The 
physical  hardship  of  the  earlier  years  of  the  settlement 
was  largely  his  work ;  so  were  the  disturbances  raised 
within  the  Colonies  by  heretics  and  malcontents ;  so, 
more  palpably  still,  were  the  Indian  wars  in  which  his 
subjects  rose  in  arms  against  the  servants  of  Christ ; 
so,  too,  were  certain  phenomena  that  every  one  at  the 
present  day  would  instantly  recognize  as  natural :  more 
than  once  Cotton  Mather  remarks  as  clearly  diaboli- 
cal the  fact  that  the  steeples  of  churches  are  oftener 


\ 


\ 


92  COTTON  MATHER, 

struck  by  lightning  than  any  other  structures.  And  from 
the  very  earliest  days  of  the  settlement  the  Devil  had 
waged  his  unholy  war  in  a  more  subtle  way  still :  ap- 
pearing in  person,  or  in  the  person  of  direct  emissaries 
from  the  invisible  world,  to  more  than  a  few  hapless 
Christians,  he  had  constantly  striven  with  bribes  and 
threats  to  seduce  them  to  his  service.  Whoever  yielded 
to  him  was  rewarded  by  the  possession  of  supernatural 
power,  which  was  secretly  exerted  for  all  manner  of 
malicious  purposes ;  these  were  the  witches  :  whoever 
withstood  him  was  tortured  in  mind  and  body  almost 
beyond  the  power  of  men  to  bear;  these  were  the 
bewitched.  There  was  no  phase  of  the  Devil's  warfare 
so  insidious,  so  impalpable,  so  dangerous,  as  this :  in 
the  very  heart  of  the  churches,  in  the  pulpits  them- 
selves, witches  might  lurk.  Their  crime  was  the  dark- 
est of  all,  —  deliberate  treason  to  the  Lord  ;  but  it  was 
the  hardest  of  all  to  detect  and  to  prove,  —  the  most 
horrible,  both  in  its  nature  and  in  its  possibility  of  evil- 
doing.  Mysterious,  horrible,  inevitable,  it  demanded 
every  effort  of  Christians  to  withstand  its  subtle  power. 
To  the  Mathers,  I  believe,  all  this  was  very  real.  In 
1684  Increase  Mather  had  written  a  book  against 
witchcraft.  Two  years  later,  as  we  have  seen.  Cotton 
Mather  had  had  what  he  might  well  have  believed  a 
special  message  trom  Heaven  thafhis  chieTmissTdn  for 
the  moment  was  to  fight  the  witches.  The  sins  of  tRe 
Colonists  had  brought  on  them  the  most  terrible  of 
their  misfortunes  :  the  Charter  was  gone,  and  Kirk  was 
coming  with  his  red-coats ;  and,  in  the  deep  agony  of 
secret  prayer.  Cotton  Mather  was  beseeching  God  to 
show  mercy  to  New  England,  and  promising,  v/hen  such 


WITCHCRAFT.  93 

mercy  came,  what  special  services  the  Lord  might  see 
fit  to  demand.  The  good  news  came,  at  a  moment 
when  the  Lord  was  rewarding  his  prayers  by  visions 
of  a  white- robed  angel  from  whose  lips  he  heard  as- 
surances of  Divine  favour.  King  Charles  was  dead, 
Kirk  was  coming  no  longer.  His  prayers  had  availed 
to  save  New  England  from  the  worst  of  her  dangers. 
Wliat  should  he  do  for  the  Lord?  At  that  very  mo- 
ment, as  we  have  seen,  witchcraft  was  abroad.  It  was 
his  duty  to  collect  testimony  against  it,  to  denounce  it, 
to  fight  it  with  all  his  might.  From  that  moment,  ap- 
parently, he  began.  And  the  more  he  studied  it,  the 
more  real  and  terrible  he  found  it.  In  1688  there  was  ^ 
a  sad  outbreak  of  it  in  Boston :  Cotton  Mather  took  ' 
into  his  own  house  one  of  the  afflicted  children,  whose 
behaviour  as  he  relates  it  was  in  all  respects  such  as  to 
increase  his  belief  both  in  the  reality  of  the  Devirs 
work,  and  in  the  divine  sanction  of  his  own  efforts 
against  it.  And  now,  in  1692,  when  the  prayers  of 
New  England  for  a  righteous  charter  had  been  granted, 
when  the  best  of  governors  was  come,  ready  to  put 
into  execution  the  best  of  policies,  when  at  last  the  ma- 
terial prospects  of  Christ's  kingdom  were  fairer  than  for 
years  before,  the  Devil  began  such  a  spiritual  assault  on 
New  England  as  had  never  before  been  approached. 

The  story  of  Salem  Witchcraft  has  been  told  by 
Upham  with  a  fulness  and  a  fairness  that  leave  nothing 
to  be  added.  But  he  fails,  I  think,  sympathetically  to 
understand  a  fact  which  he  emphasizes  with  character- 
istic honesty,  —  the  tremendous  influence  on  human 
beings  of  that  profound  realizing  sense  of  the  mysteries 
that  surround  us,  to  which  those  who  do  not  share  it 
eive  the  name  superstition. 


94  CO  TTOM  MA  THER. 

At  various  periods  of  history  epidemics  of  supersti- 
tion have  appeared,  sometimes  in  madly  tragic  forms, 
sometimes,  as  in  modern  spiritualism,  in  grotesquely 
comic  ones.  These  are  generally  classed  as  pure  delu- 
sions, based  on  no  external  facts.  But  for  my  part, 
though  I  may  claim  none  of  the  authority  which  would 
come  from  special  study  of  the  subject,  I  am  strongly 

^  inclined  to  believe  that  from  the  earliest  recorded  times 
a  certain  pretty  definite  group  of  mysterious  phe- 
nomena has,  under  various  names,  really  shown  itself 
throughout  human  society.  Oracles,  magic,  witchcraft, 
animal  magnetism,  spiritualism,  —  call  the  phenomena 
what  you  will,  —  seem  to  me  a  fact.  Certain  phases  of 
it  are  beginning  to  be  understood  under  the  name  of 

L  hypnotism.  Other  phases,  after  the  best  study  that 
has  been  given  them,  seem  to  be  little  else  than  de- 
liberate fraud  and  falsehood;  but  they  are  fraud  and 
falsehood,  if  this  be  all  they  are,  of  a  specific  kind,  un- 
changed for  centuries.  The  evidence  at  the  trial  of 
the  Mar^chal  de  Rais,  a  soldier  of  Joan  of  Arc  and  the 
original  of  the  tale  of  Blue-Beard,  relates  phenomena 
that  anybody  can  see  to-day  by  paying  a  dollar  to  a 
"  materializing  medium."  And  some  of  them  are  very 
like  what  are  related  in  the  trials  of  the  Salem  witches. 
So  specific  is  the  fraud,  if  only  fraud  it  be,  that  it  may 
well  be  regarded,  I  think,  as  a  distinct  mental,  or  per- 
haps rather  moral  disorder. 

With  no  sort  of  pretension  to  scientific  knowledge,  I 
have  found  that  a  guess  I  made  in  talk  some  years  ago 
throws  what  may  be  a  little  light  on  many  of  the  myste- 
rious phenomena  that  in  Cotton  Mather's  time  were 
deemed  indisputably  diabolical.     I  shall  venture,  then, 


WITCHCRAFT,  9S 

to  state  it  here,  to  be  taken  for  no  more  than  a  lay- 
man's guess  may  be  worth.  If,  as  modern  science 
tends  to  show,  human  beings  are  the  result  of  a  pro- 
cess of  evolution  from  lower  forms  of  life,  there  must 
have  been  in  our  ancestral  history  a  period  when  the 
intelligence  of  our  progenitors  was  as  different  from  the 
modem  human  mind  —  the  only  form  of  intelligence 
familiar  to  our  experience  or  preserved  in  the  records 
of  our  race  —  as  were  their  remote  aquatic  bodies  from 
the  human  form  we  know  to-day.  To-day  we  can  per- 
ceive with  any  approach  to  distinctness  only  what  re- 
veals itself  to  us  through  the  medium  of  our  five  senses ; 
but  we  have  only  to  look  at  the  intricate  wheelings  of 
a  flock  of  birds,  at  the  flight  of  a  carrier  pigeon,  at  the 
course  of  a  dog  who  runs  straight  home  over  a  hundred 
miles  of  strange  country,  to  see  more  than  a  probability 
that  animals  not  remote  from  us  physically  have  per- 
ceptions to  which  we  are  strangers.  It  seems  wholly 
conceivable,  then,  that  in  the  remote  psychologic  past 
of  our  race  there  may  have  been  in  our  ancestors  cer- 
tain powers  of  perception  which  countless  centuries  of 
disuse  have  made  so  rudimentary  that  in  our  normal 
condition  we  are  not  conscious  of  them.  But  if  such 
there  were,  it  would  not  be  strange  that,  in  abnormal 
states,  the  rudimentary  vestiges  of  these  disused  powers 
of  perception  might  sometimes  be  revived.  If  this 
were  the  case,  we  might  naturally  expect  two  phenom- 
ena to  accompany  such  a  revival :  in  the  first  place,  as 
such  powers  of  perception,  from  my  very  hypothesis, 
belong  normally  to  a  period  in  the  development  of  our 
race  when  human  society  and  what  we  call  moral  law 
have  not  yet  appeared,  we  should  expect  them  to  be 


96  COTTON  MATHER. 

intimately  connected  with  a  state  of  emotion  that 
ignores  what  we  call  the  moral  sense,  and  so  to  be 
accompanied  by  various  forms  of  misconduct ;  in  the 
second  place,  as  our  chief  modern  means  of  communi- 
cation —  articulate  language  —  belongs  to  a  period 
when  human  intelligence  has  assumed  its  present  form, 
we  should  expect  to  find  it  inadequate  for  the  expres- 
sion of  facts  which  it  never  professed  to  cover,  and 
so  we  should  expect  such  phenomena  as  we  are  con- 
sidering to  be  accompanied  by  an  erratic,  impotent 
inaccuracy  of  statement,  which  would  soon  shade  into 
something  indistinguishable  from  deliberate  falsehood. 
In  other  words,  such  phenomena  would  naturally  in- 
volve in  whoever  abandons  himself  to  them  a  mental 
and  moral  degeneracy  which  any  one  who  believes  in  a 
personal  devil  would  not  hesitate  to  ascribe  to  the  direct 
intervention  of  Satan. 

Now  what  disposes  me,  scientifically  a  layman  I 
must  repeat,  to  think  that  my  guess  may  have  some- 
thing in  it  is  that  mental  and  moral  degeneracy  — 
credulity  and  fraud  —  seem  almost  invariably  so  to 
entangle  themselves  with  occult  phenomena  that  many 
cool-headed  people  are  disposed  to  assert  the  whole 
thing  a  lie.  To  me,  as  I  have  shown,  it  does  not  seem 
so  simple.  I  am  much  disposed  to  think  that  necro- 
mancers, witches,  mediums,  —  what  not,  —  actually  do 
perceive  in  the  infinite  realities  about  us  things  that 
are  imperceptible  to  normal  human  beings ;  but  that 
they  perceive  them  only  at  a  sacrifice  of  their  higher 
faculties  —  mental  and  moral  —  not  inaptly  symbolized 
in  the  old  tales  of  those  who  sell  their  souls. 

If  this  be  true,  witchcraft  is  not  a  delusion :  it  is  a 


WITCHCRAFT.  97 

thing  more  subtly  dangerous  still.  Such  an  epidemic 
of  it  as  came  to  New  England  in  1692  is  as  diabolical- 
a  fact  as  human  beings  can  know :  unchecked,  it  can 
really  work  mischief  unspeakable.  I  have  said  enough, 
I  think,  to  show  why  I  heartily  sympathize  with  those 
who  in  1692  did  their  utmost  to  suppress  it;  to  show, 
too,  why  the  fatally  tragic  phase  of  the  witch  trials 
seems  to  me,  not  the  fact  that  there  was  no  crime  to 
'condemn,  but  the  fact  that  the  evidence  on  which 
certain  wretched  people  were  executed  proves,  on 
scrutiny,  utterly  insufficient.  It  was  little  better  than 
to-'day  would  be  the  ravings  of  a  clairvoyant  against 
one  accused  of  theft.  And  yet,  if  there  be  anything  in 
my  guess,  this  too  is  just  what  we  might  expect.  Not 
knowing  what  they  did,  the  judges  would  strain  every 
nerve  —  just  as  in  their  rapt  ecstasies  the  Mathers 
strained  every  nerve,  along  with  their  Puritan  fellows, 
and  the  saints  of  every  faith  —  to  awaken  from  the 
lethargy  of  countless  ages  those  rudimentary  powers 
which  can  be  awakened  only  at  the  expense  of  what 
we  think  the  higher  ones  that  have  supplanted  them. 
The  motive  may  make  a  difference :  he  who  strives  to 
serve  God  may  end  as  he  begun,  a  better  man  than 
he  who  consents  to  serve  the  Devil.  But,  for  all  that, 
bewitched  and  judges  alike,  the  startled  ministers  to 
whom  the  judges  turned  for  counsel,  and  perhaps  not 
a  few  of  the  witches  too,  who  may  well  have  believed 
in  themselves,  vie  with  one  another  in  a  devil's  race, 
harking  back  to  mental  and  moral  depths  from  which 
humanity  has  taken  countless  centuries  to  rise. 

Whoever  cares  to  know  in  detail  the  story  of  1692 
may  read  it  in  Upham,  or  in  Palfrey.     In  brief,  the 

7 


98  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

children  of  Mr.  Parris,  minister  of  Salem  Village,  were 
seized  early  in  the  year  with  disorders  which  seemed 
-'^'^^f  no  earthly  origin.  They  accused  certain  neighbours 
of  bewitching  them  ;  the  neighbours  were  arrested.  The 
troubles  and  the  accusations  spread  with  the  speed 
of  any  panic.  By  the  time  Sir  William  assumed  the 
government,  the  whole  region  was  in  an  agony  of  super- 
stitious terror ;  and  whoever  raised  his  voice  against 
the  matter  fell  under  suspicion  of  league  with  the  Devil. 
At  that  moment,  as  the  old  judicial  system  had  fallen 
with  the  Charter,  there  were  no  regular  courts.  Within 
a  few  weeks,  Sir  William,  full  of  the  gravity  of  the 
situation,  and  probably  under  the  direct  advice  of  the 
Mathers,  appointed  a  special  Court  of  Oyer  and  Ter- 
miner to  try  the  witches.  William  Stoughton,  the 
Deputy  Governor,  was  made  Chief  Justice :  his  six 
associates  were  gentlemen  of  the  highest  station  and 
character  in  the  Province :  among  them  was  Sam- 
uel Sewall,  whose  Diary  I  have  so  often  quoted.  On 
the  2d  of  June  this  court  condemned  one  Bridget 
Bishop :  on  the  loth  she  was  executed  for  witchcraft. 
Before  proceeding  further,  the  court  consulted  the 
'  ministers  of  Boston  and  the  neighbourhood.  The  answer 
of  the  ministers  is  said  to  have  been  drawn  up  by 
Cotton  Mather :  in  general  terms  it  urged  "  the  im- 
portance of  caution  and  circumspection  in  the  methods 
of  examination,"  but  "  earnestly  recommended  that  the 
proceedings  should  be  vigorously  carried  on."  ^ 
\  It  is  largely  on  this  document  that  the  charge  against 
Cotton  Mather  rests :  he  is  believed  by  many  deliber- 
ately to  have  urged  the  judicial  murder  of  innocent 

J  Upham,  II.  268. 


\ 


WITCHCRAFT.  99 

people  for  the  simple  purpose  of  establishing  and  main- 
taining his  own  ascendency  in  the  state.  To  me,  and 
what  I  have  written  already  should  show  why,  the 
paper  seems  the  only  possible  thing  for  an  honest, 
superstitious  man  —  himself  in  direct  communication 
with  the  blessed  part  of  the  invisible  world  —  to  have 
written.  Witchcraft  was  to  him  the  most  terrible  of 
realities ;  not  to  proceed  against  it  would  have  been  to 
betray  the  cause  of  Christ ;  but  the  Devil  stood  ready 
to  beguile  the  courts  themselves;  the  evidence  must 
be  carefully  scrutinized,  or  who  could  tell  what  mischief 
might  come? 

Thus  encouraged,  the  Court  proceeded.  How  many 
wretched  people  were  committed  can  never  be  quite 
known :  Upham  thinks  several  hundreds.^  Nineteen 
were  hanged ;  one  was  pressed  to  death  for  refusing  to 
plead  to  his  indictment ;  at  least  two  died  in  jail.  By 
the  end  of  September,  a  revulsion  of  popular  feeling 
had  come.  The  accusations  had  spread  too  far :  the 
evidence  on  which  the  witches  were  executed  was  be- 
ginning to  seem  too  flimsy.  On  the  2 2d  of  Septemr^ 
ber  came  the  last  executions.  In  January,  1693,^  the 
special  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer  was  supplanted 
by  a  regular  Superior  Court,  consisting  of  much  the 
same  men.  It  threw  out  "  spectral  evidence,'*  —  that 
is,  it  declined  to  consider  the  ravings  of  the  bewitched  : 
only  three  out  of  fifty  indicted  for  witchcraft  were  con- 
demned, and  none  of  these  was  executed.  In  May^- 
1693,  the  panic  was  over.  By  proclamation,  Sir  William 
Phipps  discharged  all  the  accused.  "Such  a  jail 
delivery,"  says  Hutchinson,  "  has  never  been  known 
in  New  England."^ 

i  Upham,  IT.  351.  2  ibid.,  II.  349. 


lOO  COTTON  MATHER. 

In  all  this  matter  Increase  Mather  seems  to  have  ■; 

played  no  conspicuous  part.     Four  years  of  diplomacy  : 

in  the  capital  of  the  British  empire  had  perhaps  taught  i 

him  practical  lessons  of  prudence  not  to  be  learned  in  j 

any  less  arduous  school.    But  while  these  were  learning,  ; 

his  son,  not  yet  thirty  years  old,  had  been  surrounded  ■ 

by  influences  diametrically  different.     In  the  provincial  ; 

Boston,  which  was  at  once  the  greatest  city  in  America  \ 

and  the  only  home  he  ever  knew,  Cotton  Mather  had  I 

found  himself,  at  an  age  when  most  men  are  still  passed  ■ 

by  as  young,  among  the  chiefs  of  the  leaders.  And  then,  ; 
as  later,  it  had  been  his  lot  to  meet  hardly  anybody 

^  whom  he  could  honestly  deem  by  his  own  standards  j 

superior  to  himself.     As  we  shall  see  by  and  by,  his  \ 

later  career  was  marked  by  what  has  often  seemed,  I 

particularly  when  we  remember  his  constant  failure  to  i 

achieve  the  public  ends  he  strove  for,  a  ridiculous  and  ' 

overweening  vanity.     But    I   think  that  few  can  rise  ! 
from  a  careful  study  of  his  diary  without  feeling  that 

this  vanity  was  no  blind  self-approval ;  but  at  most  a  , 

conviction,  in  his  happier  moments,  that,  far  as  he  was  '• 

from  the  attainment  of  his  ideals,  there  were  none  about  ; 

'  him  who  were  any  nearer  the  attainment  of  theirs,  and  j 

that  there  were  many  —  and  year  by  year  more  —  who  \ 

were  falling  away  from  the  ancestral  traditions  that  he  - 

never_gave  up.     In  1692  he  was  stiUin  the  flush  of  ; 

youth  and  of  success.     No  one  was  more  active  in  i 

fighting  the  Devil's  works  as  revealed  in  witchcraft.  \ 

No  one,   for  well  on  to  two  centuries,  has  borne  so  ^ 
much  of  the  odium  of  what  was  done  as  he. 

We  have  seen  how  his  books  and  his  conduct  in  j 

1688   tended   to    stir   up   public   feeling   against   the  ; 


WITCHCRAFT.  lOi 

witches ;  we  have  seen  how  the  lettef  of-  the  ministei's 
which  he  drew  up  encouraged  the  piizzled' Court  o! 
Oyer  and  Terminer  to  proceed 'with  its  C'eadjy_v>c»r]:. 
On  the  19th  of  August,  1692,  the  most  eminent  of 
the  victims  of  the  proceedings  was  hanged  ;  this  was 
the  Rev.  George  Burroughs,  a  graduate  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege, and  for  something  like  twenty  years  a  minister  of 
the  Gospel.  Four  others  died  with  him..  One  of  Sew- 
airs  very  few  notes  of  this  period  describes  this  day. 

**  A  very  great  number  of  Spectators  .  .  .  present.  Mr. 
Cotton  Mather  was  there.  ...  All  of  them  said  they  were 
iriocent.  .  .  .  Mr.  Mather  says  they  all  died  by  a  Righteous 
sentence.  Mr.  Burroughs,  by  his  Speech,  Prayer,  protes- 
tation of  his  Innocence,  did  much  move  unthinking  per- 
sons, which  occasions  their  speaking  hardly  concerning  his 
being  executed."  In  the  margin  Sewall  has  written  "  Dole- 
full  Witchcraft ! "  ^ 

Calef,  of  whom  we  shall  hear  more  by  and  by,  gives 
a  fuller  account  of  the  scene  :  — 

*' When  [Mr.  Burroughs]  was  upon  the  ladder,  he  made  a 
speech  for  the  clearing  of  his  innocency,  with  such  solemn 
and  serious  expressions,  as  were  to  the  admiration  of  all 
present :  his  prayer  (which  he  concluded  by  repeating  the 
Lord's  prayer  2)  was  so  well  worded,  and  uttered  with  such 
composedness,  and  such  (at  least  seeming)  fervency  of 
spirit,  as  was  very  affecting,  and  drew  tears  from  many,  so 
that  it  seemed  to  some  that  the  spectators  would  hinder 
the  execution.  The  accusers*  said  the  black  man  stood 
and  dictated  to  him.     As  soon  as  he  was  turned  off,  Mr. 

1  Diar>%  I.  363. 

2  It  was  believed  that  no  witch  could  repeat  the  Lord*s  prayer 
without  error. 

8  The  bewitched  .  a  capital  example  of  spectral  evidence. 


102  COTTON  MATHER. 

Cqtton  Ma.tl?er,  being  mounted  upon  a  horse,  addressed  i 

himself  to  tlie/'j^^oi-ie,  partly   to   declare   that  .  .  .  [Bur-  | 

roughs]  was  no  ordained  minister,  and  partly  to  possess  i 

•tti e-pre,op^ie6t  hi^  guilt,  saying  that  the  devil  has  often  been  j 

transformed  into  an  angel  of  light ;  and  this  somewhat  ap-  \ 

peased  the  people,  and  the  executions  went  on.     When  he  ] 

was  cut  down,  he  was  dragged  by  the  halter  to  a  hole  .  .  .  ' 

between   the   rocks,  about  two  feet   deep,   his   shirt  and  \ 

breeches  being  pulled  off,  and  an  old  pair  of  trowsers  of  • 

one  executed  put  on  his  lower  parts  ;  he  was  so  put  in  j 

,  .  .  that  one  of  his  hands  and  his  chin  .  .  .  were  left  ; 
uncovered."  ^ 

Just  a  month  later,  Giles  Corey  was  pressed  to  death  j 
for  refusing  to  plead  to  his  indictment,  —  the  solitary  ! 
instance  in  America  of  this  terrible  barbarity  of  the  old 
English  criminal  law.  , 

*'  Sept.  20,"  writes  Sewall,  "  Now  I  hear  from  Salem  that  ' 
about  i8  years  agoe  he  was  suspected  to  have  stamped  and  ! 
press'd  a  man  to  death,  but  was  cleared.  Twas  not  re-  ] 
membered  till  Ane  Putnam  was  told  of  it  by  said  Corey's  \ 
Spectre  the  Sabbath-day  night  before  the  Execution.**  ^  ' 

On  this  very  day,  the  20th  of  September,  two  days 
before  the  last  of  the  executions.  Cotton  Mather  wrote   \ 
to  Stephen  Sewall,  clerk  of  the  court  at  Salem,  a  let-   ; 
ter  which  Upham  deems  conclusive  of  his  artful  dis-   : 
honesty.^  { 

**  That  I  may  bee  the  more  capable  to  assist,  in  lifting  up  \ 
a  standard  against  the  Infernal  Enemy,"  it  runs,  "  I  must    \ 

1  Page  213.  '- 
'^   Diary,  I.  364.     Upham,   IT.   341,   seq.^   shows  the  charge  1 
against  Corey  to  have  been  groundless.    There  is  no  more  nota- 
ble example  of  the  popular  infatuation.  1 
8  Upham,  II.  487,  seq.     Cf.  Sibley,  III.  11.  \ 


WITCHCRAFT.  103 

Renew  my  most  Importunate  Request,  that  you  would 
please  quickly  to  perform,  what  you  kindly  promised,  of 
giving  me  a  Narrative  of  the  Evidences  given  in  at  the 
Trials  of  half  a  dozen,  or  if  you  please  a  dozen,  of  the  prin- 
cipal Witches,  that  have  been  condemned.  ...  I  am  will 
ing  that  when  you  write,  you  should  imagine  me  as  obstinate 
a  Sadducee  and  Witch-advocate  as  any  among  us  :  ad- 
dress mee  as  one  that  Believ*d  Nothing  Reasonable;  and 
when  you  have  so  knocked  mee  down,  in  a  spectre  so 
unlike  mee,  you  will  enable  mee,  to  box  it  about,  among  my 
Neighbs,  till  it  come,  I  know  not  where,  at  last.'* 

Two  days  later,  on  that  very  2 2d  of  September 
when  the  last  witches  were  hanging,  Sewall  notes  that 
"  William  Stoughton,  Esqr.,  John  Hathome,  Esqr.,  Mr. 
Cotton  Mather,  and  Capt.  John  Higginson,  with  my 
brother  St.,  were  at  our  house,  speaking  about  publish- 
ing some  Trials  of  Witches."  ^  The  result  of  this  letter 
and  conference  seems  to  have  been  Cotton  Mather^s 
well  known  "Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World,*'  pub- 
Hshed  the  next  year  both  in  Boston  and  in  London. 

A  few  of  Sewall's  notes  show  the  course  of  popular 
feehng  meanwhile.  On  the  15  th  of  October  he  went 
to  Cambridge  to  discourse  with  Mr.  Danforth  about 
witchcraft :  Mr.  Danforth 

"  thinks  there  canot  be  a  procedure  in  the  Court  except 
there  be  some  better  consent  of  Ministers  and  People." 
On  the  26th,  "  A  Bill  is  sent  in  about  calling  a  Fast,  and 
Convocation  of  Ministers,  that  may  be  led  in  the  right  way 
as  to  the  Witchcrafts.     The  reason  and  maner  of  doing  it, 

^  Diary,  I.  365.  Stoughton,  Hathome,  and  Sewall  were 
judges  of  the  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer ;  Stephen  Sewall, 
clerk  of  the  Court,  was  the  man  to  whom  Cotton  Mather  had 
written  on  September  20. 


104  COTTON  MATHER.  \ 

is  such,  that  the  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer  count  them-  | 
selves  thereby  dismissed.  29  Nos  and  33  yeas  to  the  Bill." 
On  the  28th,  Sewall,  "as  had  done  several  times  before,  j 
desired  to  have  the  advice  of  the  Governour  and  Council  i 
as  to  the  sitting  of  the  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer  next  ! 
week  :  said  should  move  it  no  more ;  great  silence,  as  if 
should  say,  do  not  go."  Next  day,  "  Mr.  Russell  asked  i 
whether  the  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer  should  sit,  ex-  ] 
pressing  some  fear  of  Inconvenience  by  its  fall.  Governour  j 
said  it  must  fall.     Licut.-Governour  ^  not  in  Town." 

It  was  nearly  a  year  later,  in  September,  1693,  that  • 
Cotton  Mather,  in  Upham's  phrase,^  "succeeded  in  ; 
getting  up  "  the  case  of  witchcraft  that  cost  him  dear-  I 
est.     One  Margaret   Rule,  a  young  woman  of  Boston  ' 

whose  character  seems  to  have  been  none  of  the  best,  i 

J 
was  seized  with  all  the  symptoms  of  possession.     One  \ 

symptom,  mentioned   I  think  only  in  her  case,  throws  ■ 

considerable  light   on   her   disorder:    the  devils  pre-  , 

vented  her  from  eating,  but  permitted  her  occasionally  ; 

to  swallow  a  little  rum.     Both  of  the  Mathers  visited  \ 

her,  surrounded  by  her  startled  and  credulous  friends ;  i 

they  listened  with  full  faith  to  her  tales  of  black  spirits  • 

and  white  who  haunted  her;  they  examined  her  per-  1 

son  with  what  in  less  holy  men  might  have  savoured  \ 

of  indiscretion ;  they   prayed  with   her   and   for  her.  I 

And  finally,  the  discouraged  devils  fled  away  ;  and  she,  ' 

returning  perfectly  to  herself,  though  extremely  weak  \ 

and  faint  and  overwhelmed  with  vapours,  most  affec-  j 

tionately    gave    thanks  to  God  for  her    deliverance.^  -; 

This  case,  portending  such  a  diabolical  descent  on  Bos-  i 

ton  as  hid  passed  over  Salem,  attracted  the  attention  < 

1  Stoughton.  2  Upham,  II,  489.  »  Calef,  p.  34.        ' 


WITCHCRAFT,  1 05 

among  others,  of  one  Robert  Calef,  a  merchant  of  the 
town.  He  visited  Margaret  Rule  when  the  Mathers 
were  with  her.  A  perfect  matter-of-fact  man,  thor- 
oughly honest  and  equally  devoid  of  imagination,  he  saw 
in  her  sufferings  only  a  vulgar  cheat,  and  in  the  conduct 
of  the  Mathers  something  which  seems  to  have  im- 
pressed him  as  deliberate  and  not  wholly  decent  con- 
nivance in  her  imposture.  He  made  notes  of  what  he 
had  seen,  and  submitted  them  to  Cotton  Mather.  The 
controversy  that  followed,  which  has  been  admirably 
summarized  by  Sibley,^  lasted  in  one  form  or  another 
for  six  years.  In  1700,  Calef  s  book  on  the  subject 
was  published  in  London,  and  soon  found  its  way  to 
Boston.^ 

*  Calefs  temper  was  that  of  the  rational  Eighteenth 
Century  1  the  Mathers  belonged  rather  to  the  Sixteenth, 
—  the  age  of  passionate  religious  enthusiasm.  '  To  me, 
both  sides  seem  equally  honest ;  and  the  difference  be- 
tween them  seems  chiefly  due  to  the  fact  that,  as  in  a 
thousand  other  cases  in  human  history,  a  man  of  the 
future  can  rarely  so  rise  above  himself  as  to  understand 
men  of  the  past.  In  such  a  controversy,  it  is  the 
man  of  the  future  that  the  future  holds  right.  In  the 
time  that  has  passed  since  the  Mathers  and  Calef  have 
lain  in  their  graves,  the  world  has  seen  an  age  of  reason, 
-and  not  of  imaginative  emotion.  And  most  of  those 
who  have  concerned  themselves  about  these  dead  men 
have  deemed  Calef  all  in  the  right,  and  the  Mathers 
foolish,  if  not  v/orse.  But  did  Calef  see  all?  Is  there, 
after  all,  in  a  great   epidemic  of  superstition  nothing 

^  Harvard  Graduates,  III.  12-18. 
2  Cf.  pages  150,  186. 


io6  COTTON  MATHER,  ^ 

I 
beyond  what  those  who  escape  the  contagion  perceive?  < 
Are  we  not  to-day  beginning  to  guess  that  there  may  be  ' 
in  heaven  and  earth  more  things  than  are  yet  dreamt  • 
of  in  your  philosophy?  If  there  be,  it  may  in  the 
end  prove  the  verdict  of  men  that  neither  honest  Calef  1 
nor  the  honest  Mathers  saw  all  that  passed  before  ] 
their  eyes ;  but  that  each  in  his  own  way  caught  a  1 
glimpse  of  truth,  and  that  each  believed  that  all  the  ] 
■\  truth  was  comprised  in  the  bit  he  saw. 

But  we  are  come  now  to  a  point  where  we  must  turn  •■ 
to  Cotton  Mather  himself;  where  we  must  look  to  the  I 
diaries  he  has  left  us,  and  to  the  works  he  \vrote  later,  \ 
for  an  account  of  what  these  critical  years  meant  to  ' 
him.  The  substance  of  his  later  writings  seems  to  me  ; 
adequately  represented  by  the  passages  about  witch-* ^ 
craft  in  the  "  Magnalia  "  and  the  **  Parentator."  A  few  i 
words  of  these,  and  we  will  pass  to  his  diafies  for  1692  ^  j 
and  1693.^  • 

The  substance  of  his  final  view  of  the  case,  as  shown  J 
in  his  published  works,  seems  to  have  been  this :  ' 
The  witchcraft  was  a  real  attack  of  the  Devil,  per-  ; 
mitted  perhaps  as  a  punishment  for  dabblings  in  sor-  ; 
eery  and  magical  tricks  which  people  had  begun  to  ; 
allow  themselves.'  The  afflictions  of  the  possessed,  j 
which  he  details  in  all  their  petty  absurdities,  that  j 
seem  nowadays  as  monstrously  trivial,  were  really  ] 
diabolical.  1 

"Flashy  people  may  burlesque  these  things,  but  when  ^ 
hundreds  of  the  most  sober  people  in  a  country  where  they  1 

1  In  possession  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society. 

^  In  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

»  Parentator,  XXVIII.  \ 


WITCHCRAFT,  107 

have  as  much  mother-wit  certainly  as  the  rest  of  mankind, 
know  them  to  be  true^  nothing  but  the  absurd  and  frovvard 
Spirit  of  Sadducism  can  question  them.'^  ^ 

The  only  doubtful  question  was  whether  the  Devil 
had  the  power  of  assuming  before  the  eyes  of  his  vic- 
tims the  shape  of  innocent  persons.  The  assumption  I 
on  the  part  of  the  judges  that  he  had  no  such  power  I 
led  to  the  conviction  on  spectral  evidence  of  not  a  few  [ 
victims  of  the  court.  The  abandonment  of  this  as-  \ 
sumption  led  to  the  cessation  of  the  prosecutions,  and 
to  the  jail  delivery  of  1693.  Mather  asserts  in  sub- 
stance that  he  always  opposed  spectral  evidence ;  and 
it  is  certain  that  Increase  Mather's  "  Cases  of  Con- 
science," published  in  1694,  clearly  condemns  it.  It 
is  certain,  too,  that  Cotton  Mather's  letter  to  John 
Richards,  dated  May  31,  1692,^  warns  the  judge  in  the 
most  specific  terms  against  the  dangers  of  spectral  evi-  ; 
dence.  Cotton  Mather's  own  position,  as  he  finally 
states  it,  then,  seems  to  have  been  a  persistent  belief 
in  witchcraft,  a  persistent  determination  to  keep  the 
public  alive  to  all  the  horrors  of  the  crime,  and  to  op- 
pose it  by  every  means  in  his  power,  but  a  growing 
doubt  as  to  how  far  so  mysterious  and  terrible  an  evil 
can  be  dealt  with  by  so  material  an  engine  as  the  crim- 
inal law.  On  the  whole  he  inclines  more  and  more  to 
reliance  on  fasting  and  prayer.  This  was  undoubtedly 
the  view  taken,  when  the  panic  was  once  over,  by  even 
the  most  strenuous  advocates  of  the  reality  of  witchcraft, 
and  Cotton  Mather  undeniably  takes  to  himself  the 
credit  of  having  held  and  urged  it  all  along. 

^  Magnalia,  II.  App.  §  16. 

2  Mather  Papers,  392,  seq.     See  page  1 10. 


io8  COTTON  MATHER,  J 

J 

The  part  of  the  "  Magnalia  "  in  which  these  facts  ap-  ; 

pear  is  the  Life  of  Sir  WilUam  Phipps,  first  pubHshed  j 

separately   and  anonymously  in  1697.      On  the  fact  ' 

that  this   book  was   anonymous,  Calef  bases  much  of  1 

his  charge  that  Mather  wrote  it  dishonestly  to  praise  ; 

himself,  and  to  delude  people  into  believing  him  free  ' 

from  the  responsibility  of  having  urged  on  the  prose cu-  j 

tions.     On  this  fact,  on  the  feebleness  of  the  caution  ! 

addressed  by  the  ministers  to  the  Court  of  Oyer  and  '\ 

Terminer,  and  on  the   letter  to  Stephen  Sewall,  rests  i 

most  of  the  charge  of  dishonesty  from  which  Mather's  ! 

name  has  never  been  cleared  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  j 

opponents.     It  seems  to  me  that  the  anonymous  pub-  ' 

lication  —  by  no  means  the  only   example    of  it  in  | 

Mather's    voluminous  works  ^  —  may  well  have  beeu  ! 

due  to  no  worse  motive  than  a  wish  for  a  fair  hearing,  - 

which  might  not  have  been  accorded  to  a  name  which  ; 

was  held  up  to  public  execration.    It  seems  to  me,  too,  ; 

that  the  letter  of  the  ministers  may  be  taken  for  just  ' 

what   it   purports  to  be,  —  an   honest   warning   of  a  : 

danger,  in  spite  of  which  the  Court  has  no  moral  right  \ 

to  hesitate  in  the  performance  of  its  official  duty.    And  i 

in  the  letter  to  Stephen  Sewall  I  can  see  nothing  incon-  ] 

sistent  with  the  conclusion  that  what  Cotton  Mather  \ 

wished  to  maintain  unshaken  was  not  the  fatal  penalty  > 

of  the  law,  but  that  belief  in  the   reality  of  witchcraft  : 

which  he  certainly  never  abandoned.     Calef  and  pos-  ; 

terity  seem  to  me  to  have  confused  two  distinct  things,  1 

—  this  belief  in  the  reality  of  witchcraft,  and  insistence  : 

on   the  validity  of  spectral  evidence.     But,   when  all  ' 

1  What  is  more,  he  acknowledged  the  book  in  1702,  when  the    ! 
"Magnalia"  was  published.  ] 


WITCHCRAFT.  1 09 

is  said,  I  think  two  facts  against  Mather  remain :  his 
conduct  and  his  words  had  as  much  as^anv  one  man*s 
could  havf^  to  do  with  the  Raising  of  the  panic ;  and  in 
hi<y  final  pref^entation  of  the  jp-^«:pXx,^Qth  in  his  diaries 
and  in  his  published  works,  he  never  grants^or^naegts  . 
thp  full  <;t|-^ngth  of  the  case  against  him. 

But  before  we  agree  with  those  who  believe  him  to 
have  been  deliberately  dishonest,  it  will  be  only  fair  to 
read  what  his  diaries  tell  us  of  these  troubled  years ; 
and  to  read  it,  too,  with  certain  facts  in  mind  that  seem 
to  me  too  little  considered.  '  In  the  first  place,  as  we' 
have  seen,  Cotton  Mather  had  for  years  been  a  reli- 
gious enthusiast  whose  constant  ecstasies  brought  him 
into  such  direct  communication  with  Heaven  as  he  be- 
lieved the  witches  to  maintain  with  Hell;  in  other 
words,  he  had  for  years  been,  what  he  remained  all  his 
life,  a  constant  victim  of  a  mental  or  moral  disorder 
whose  normal  tendency  is  towards  the  growth  of  un-, 
witting  credulity  and  fraud.  In  the  second  place,  I 
grow  to  believe  more  and  more  that  the  ceaseless  activ- 
ity of  mind  and  body,  of  thought,  of  emotion,  of  action, 
into  which  he  never  ceased  to  lash  himself,  —  the  ac- 
tivity which  produced  in  actual  words  and  deeds  a  life- 
work  whose  bulk  to-day  seems  almost  incredible,  — 
never  permitted  him,  in  any  act  or  word,  to  be  really 
deliberate  at  all.  Striving  with  all  his  might  to  do  the 
LoidJ^work,  believing  that  the  Lord's  will  forbade  him 
forjjuQj^nt  to  relax  a  particle  of  his  energy,  he  went 
through^is  world  from  beginning  .to  end  in  a  state  of 
emotional  exaltation^  of  pnssionate  afflation  and  reac- 
tio%  which  left  him  in  all  the_  sixty  y e:\x9.  qf  hlf^  con- 
scious life  hardly  an   hour  of  that  cool  thoughtfulness 


no  CO TTON  MA THER, 

without  which  any  deliberation  is  impossible.  It  has 
been  his  fate  —  a  man  whose  whole  career  was  a  storm 
of  passion  —  to  be  judged,  in  the  seclusion  of  libraries, 
6  by  unimaginative,  unimpassioned  posterity.  So  cool 
sympathizers  with  old  Calvinism  who  have  sought  to 
defend  him,  and  cooler  Protestants  who  have  constantly 
condemned  him,  have  alike  failed  to  understand. 

They  have  failed,  too,  adequately  to  emphasize  what 
seems  to  me  the  most  notable  piece  of  contemporary 
evidence.  On  May  31st,  1692,  we  have  seen,  —  three 
days  before  Bridget  Bishop,  the  first  victim  of  the  Court, 
was  sentenced,  —  Cotton  Mather  wrote  to  John  Rich- 
ards, one  of  the  judges,  a  letter  in  which  he  takes,  with 
the  utmost  decision,  exactly  the  ground  he  occupied  to 
the  end  of  his  life. 

**  Do  not  lay  more  stress  upon  pure  Spectre  evidence 
than  it  will  bear,"  he  writes.  .  .  .  *'  It  is  very  certain  that 
the  divells  have  sometimes  represented  the  shapes  of  per- 
sons not  only  innocent,  but  also  very  vertuous." 

There  should  be  confession,  or  unmistakable  signs : 
he  believes  in  witch-marks,  to  be  sure,  and  in  the 
water-ordeal.  But  at  the  very  end  he  adds  this 
caution :  — 

"  It  is  worth  considering  whether  there  be  a  necessity 
alwayes  by  Extirpacons  by  Halter  or  fagott  [to  punish] 
every  wretched  creature  that  shall  be  hooked  into  some 
degrees  of  Witchcraft.  What  if  some  of  the  lesser  Crimi- 
nalls,  be  only  scourged  with  lesser  punishments,  and  also 
put  upon  some  solemn,  .  .  .  Pubhke  .  .  .  renunciation  of 
the  Divel?  I  am  apt  to  thinke  that  the  Divels  would  then 
cease  afflicting  the  Neio:hbourhood." 


WITCHCRAFT,  III 

So  we  come  back  to  the  diary  for  1692.^  As  I  have 
said  already,  this  is  far  more  abridged  and  less  spe- 
cific than  most  of  his  diaries.  But  I  do  not  believe  it 
untrue.  The  last  entry  I  quoted  was  made  in  May, 
when  his  father  had  just  returned,  and  the  new  Charter 
was  just  passing  into  operation.  "And  now,"  he 
wrote,  "  I  will  call  upon  the  Lx)rd  as  long  as  I  live." 

The  rest  of  his  entries  for  the  year  bear  no  date. 
He  notes  briefly  that  he  has  preached  against  temporal 
persecution  of  heresy  ;  "  And  I  hope  the  Lord  will  own 
me  with  a  more  Singular  Success  in  the  suppression  of 
Haeresy  by  Endeavours  more  Spiritual  and  Evangeli-  \ 
cal."  He  notes  that  in  his  public  ministry  he  has  been 
largely  handling  the  Day  of  Judgment,  from  texts  in 
the  25th  chapter  of  Matthew.  Then  comes  a  long 
note  beginning,  "  The  Rest  of  the  Summer  was  a  very 
doleful  Time  unto  the  whole  Countrey."  He  tells  how 
devils  possessed  many  people,  how  witches  were  ac- 
cused in  the  visions  of  the  afflicted,  how  he  himself 
testified  both  publicly  and  privately  against  the  dan- 
gers of  spectral  evidence,  and  how  it  was  he  who  drew 
up  the  letter  from  the  ministers  to  the  Court  of  Oyer 
and  Terminer. 

"Nevertheless,"  he  goes  on,^  "I  saw  in  most  of  the 
Judges  a  most  charming  Instance  of  prudence  and  patience, 
and  I  knew  their  exemplary  pietie,  and  the  Anguish  of 
Soul  with  which  they  sought  the  Direction  of  Heaven: 
above  most  other  people,  whom  I  generally  «aw  enchanted 

^  In  possession  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society. 

2  This  passage,  and  indeed  the  diaries  concerning  this  matter 
in  general,  have  been  studied  and  cited  by  Peabody:  Sparks's 
American  Biographies,  Vol.  VI. 

OF  THE  ^ 


112  COTTON  MATHER, 

into  a  Raging,  Railing,  Scandalous  and  unreasonable  dis- 
position as  the  distress  increased  upon  us.  For  this  cause, 
though  I  would  not  allow  the  Principles,  that  some  of  the 
Judges  had  espoused,  yet  I  could  not  but  speak  honourably 
of  their  Persons,  on  all  occasions:  and  my  Compassion 
upon  the  Sight  of  their  Difficulties  Raised  by  my  Journeys 
to  Salem,  the  Chief  Seat  of  these  Diabolical  Vexations, 
caused  me  yett  more  to  do  so.  And  merely,  as  far  as  I 
can  Learn,  for  this  Reason,  the  mad  people  thro'  the  Coun- 
trey  under  a  fascination  on  their  Spirits  equal  to  what  the 
Energumens  had  on  their  Bodies,  Reviled  inee^  as  if  I  had 
been  the  Doer  of  all  the  Hard  Things  that  were  done  in  the 
prosecution  of  the  Witchcraft." 

He  goes  on  to  note  how  he  offered  to  provide  in  his 
own  family  for  six  of  the  possessed,  that  he  might  try 
whether  prayer  and  fasting  "  would  not  putt  an  End  to 
their  Heavy  Trials  "  ;  how  throughout  the  summer  he 
prayed  and  fasted  weekly  for  this  heavy  affliction  to  the 
country ;  how  he  visited  witches  in  prison  and  preached 
to  them ;  and  how  he  wrote  his  *'  Wonders  of  the  In- 
visible World."  And  at  the  end  of  this  passage  is  a  note 
in  brackets,  apparently  made  at  some  later  time  :  — 

"[Upon  the  severest  Examination,  and  the  Solemnest 
Supplication,  I  still  think,  that  for  the  main,  I  have  Written 
Right r[  " 

Later  come  less  coherent  notes.  One  remarks  that 
the  spectres  brought  books  in  which  they  urged  the 
possessed  to  sign  away  their  souls.  Now,  as  Cotton 
Mather  worked  for  God  largely  by  writing  books,  this 
looked  as  if  "  this  Assault  of  the  Evil  Angels  upon  the 
Countrey  was  intended  by  Hell  as  a  particular  Defiance 
'  unto  my  poor  Endeavours  to  bring  the  Souls  of  men 
unto  Heaven."     Whereupon,  he   wrote  "Awakenings 


WITCHCRAFT,  II3 

for  the  Unregenerate/'  which  he  resolved^  if  he  lived, 
to  give  away  at  the  rate  of  two  a  week  for  two  years. 
In  the  margin  he  notes  that  the  evil  angels,  through  a 
possessed  young  woman,  reproached  him  for  never  hav- 
ing preached  on  liev.  13.  %}  "I  to  oppose  them,** 
he  goes  on,  "  and  yett  not  follow  them,  chose  to  preach 
on  Rev.  20.  15.**^  Later  he  makes  a  memorandum  :  as 
the  devils  bid  Energumens  sign  books,  he  will  sign  the 
best  of  books.  On  the  fly-leaves  of  his  favourite  Bibles 
he  wrote  professions  and  confessions  of  his  faith  :  for 
example,  "  Received  as  the  Book  of  God  and  of  Life 
by  Cotton  Mather.** 

"The  Hearty  Wishes  of  Cotton  Mather,"  come  next. 
**  I  have  ever  now  and  then  gone  to  the  good  God  with  the 
most  Solemn  Addresses  That  I  may  be  altogether  delivered 
from  Enchantments :  that  no  Enchantment  on  my  mind 
may  hinder  mee  from  seeing  or  doing  any  thing  for  the 
glory  of  God^  or  dispose  mee  to  anything  whereat  God  may 
be  displeased.  The  Reason  of  this  Wish  is  Because  I  be- 
leeve,  that  a  Real  and  proper  Enchantment  of  the  Divels 
do's  blind  and  move  the  minds  of  the  most  of  men:  even 
in  Instances  of  every  sort.  But  I  remember,  That  much 
Fasting  as  well  as  prayer  is  necessary  to  obtain  a  Rescue 
from  Enchantments." 

The  last  entry  I  have  noted  for  the  year,  when  I 
remember  all  the  circumstances  of  the  man's  life,  has 
for  me  real  pathos :  he  would  carefully  avoid  personal 
quarrels, 

^  "And  all  that  dwell  upon  the  earth  shall  worship  him  [the 
beast],  whose  names  are  not  written  in  the  book  of  life  of  the 
Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world." 

^  "  And  whosoever  was  not  found  written  in  the  book  of  life 
was  cast  into  the  lake  of  fire." 
8 


1 14  COTTON  MA  TITER, 

"  Because  no  man  can  manage  a  personal  Quarrel  against 
another  without  Losing  abundance  of  precious  Time.  .  .  . 
\  And  one  Likely  to  Live,  so  little  a  Tiwe^  as  I,  had  need 
throw  away,  as  Little  of  his  Time,  as  ever  he  can." 

The  diary  for  1693^  is  a  little  more  full  than  that 
for  1692  ;  but,  like  that,  is  an  abridgement  of  the  origi- 
nal, and  omits  most  of  the  dates.  On  his  birthday,  he 
preached  from  the  text,  "  O  my  God,  take  me  not  away 
in  the  midst  of  my  days.'*  Then  he  set  to  preach- 
ing over  the  whole  Epistle  of  Jude,^  "intermingled 
with  occasional  texts."  A  little  later  he  notes  that  a 
young  woman  possessed  of  devils  has  been  delivered 
after  he  has  held  three  fasts  for  her.  He  holds  a 
thanksgiving  accordingly ;  but,  her  possession  being 
renewed,  falls  again  to  fasting  and  prayer :  — 

'  "  And  unto  my  amazement,  when  I  had  kept  my  Third 
Day  for  her,  shee  was  finally  and  forever  delivered  from  the 
hands  of  the  Evil  Angels :  and  I  had  afterwards  the  satis- 
faction of  seeing,  not  only  Her  so  brought  home  unto  the 
Lord  that  she  was  admitted  into  the  Churchy  but  also  many 
others,  even  some  scores,  of  young  people  Awakened  by 
the  picture  of  Hell  exhibited  in  her  Sufferings,  to  flee  from 
the  wrath  to  comeJ*^ 

The  next  note  I  have  copied  tells  more  than  any 
other  I  have  found  of  Cotton  Mather's  pastoral 
methods :  — 

"  The  church  having  hitherto  extended  a  Church  Watch 
unto  none  but  Communicants,  and  confined  Baptism  unto 
Thefft  and  Their  Children^  I  was  desirous  to  bring  the 

^  In  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 
2  A  most  minatory  scripture. 


WITCHCRAFT.  115 

church  into  a  posture  more  Agreeable  unto  the  Advice  of 
the  ^;/^^,in  the  year,  1662.**  So  he  preached  on  the  sub- 
ject, and  allowing  no  disputation,  proceeded  to  circulate 
among  the  brethren  of  the  church  "an  instrument  contain- 
ing my  Sentiments  and  purposes."  The  brethren  **  gener- 
ally signed  a  Desire  and  Address  unto  myself  thereto 
annexed  that  I  would  act  accordingly.  As  for  the  few 
.  .  .  who  were  Disaffected  unto  my  proceedings,  I  carried 
it  so  peaceably,  and  obligingly,  and  yett  resolutely,  towards 
them,  that  they  patiently  Lett  me  take  my  way:  and  some 
of  them  told  mee,  they  thought  I  did  well  to  do  as  I  did : 
tho'  they  could  not  yett  come  to  see  as  I  did.  .  .  .  Thus  was 
the  church  quietly  brought  unto  a  point,  which  heretofore 
cost  no  Little  Difficulty.  But  my  Charge  of  such  as  now 
submitt  themselves  to  my  Ecclesiastical  Watch  was  ex- 
ceedingly increased.  —  Lord,  Lett  thy  Grace  bee  suf- 
ficient FOR  ME.*' 

He  notes  that  during  the  spring  his  days  of  fast 
and  humiliation  were  so  frequent  that  he  lost  record 
of  them ;  that  he  kept,  too,  one  or  two  days  of 
Thanksgiving  in  his  study.  On  one  of  these  days,  he 
goes  on, — 

"My  Special  Errand  unto  the  Lord  was  this:  That 
whereas  His  Good  Angels^  did  by  His  Order ^  many  good 
offices  for  His  people,  Hee  would  please  to  grant  unto  mee 
the  Enjoyment  of  all  those  Angelical  Kindnesses^  which 
are  to  bee  done  by  His  Order,  for  His  Chosen  Servants 
.  .  .  in  a  manner  and  measure  more  Transcendent,  than 
what  the  great  Corruptions  of  the  generalty  of  Good  Men, 
permitted  them  to  be  made  partakers  of.  Now  that  I 
might  bee  Qualify d  for  this  Favour,  I  .  .  .  Entreated 
that  I  may  not,  and  Engaged  that  I  will  not,  on  the  Score 
of  any  Angelical  Communications,  forsake  the  Conduct  of 
the  Lord's  Written  Wordr 


1 1 6                            CO  TTON  MA  THER.  \ 

He  goes  on  to  state  certain  lines  of  conduct  which  he  ; 

proposes  to  follow,  with  the  hope  of  making  his  be-  , 

%  haviour  as  agreeable  to  that  of  angels  as  he. can.     And  j 

his  closing  purpose  is  this  :  —  j 

(     '*  To  Conceal '^\\}c\  all  prudent  Secrecy  whatever  Extraor-  \ 

dinary  Things  I  may  perceive  done  for  mee,  by  the  An-  • 
j^els^  who  love  Secrecy  in  their  Administrations.     (C^^  I  do 

now  believe,"  he  adds,  '*  That  some  Great  Things  are  to  \ 

be  done  for  jnee  by  the  Angels  of  God."  \ 

On  the  28th  of  March  his  first  son  was  bom.     The  \ 

child  had  a  malformation  beyond  the  reach  of  con-  1 

temporary  surgery.     On  the  ist  of  April  it  died  un-  ' 

baptized.     It  was  buried  beneath  the  epitaph,  "Re-  i 

served  for  a  glorious  Resurrection."  \ 

"I  had  great  reason/*  writes  the  bereaved  father,  "to  - 

suspect  a  Witchcraft^  in  this  praeternatural  Accident ;  be-  i 

cause  my  Wife,  a  few  weeks  before  her  Deliverance,  was  1 

affrighted  with  an  horrible  Spectre^  in  the  porch,  which  i 

fright   caused   her   Bowels  to  Turn  within  her  ;   and  the  , 

Spectres  which  both  before  and  after,  Tormented  a  young  • 

woman  in  the  Neighbourhood,  brag'd  of  their  giving  my  j 

Wife  that  Fright,  in  hopes,  they  said,  of  doing  mischief  unto  , 

her  l7ifant^  at  Least,  if  not  unto  the  Mother  :  and  besides  j 

all  this  the  child  was  no  sooner  Born  but  a  suspected  1 

Woman  sent  unto  my  Father  a  Letter  full  of  Railing  against  "^ 

myself,  wherein  shee  told  him  Hee  little  knew  what  might  \ 
quickly  befall  so?ne  of  his  posterity.     However,  I  made 

little  Use  of,  and  laid  little  Stress  on,  this  Conjecture  :  : 

desiring  to  submitt  unto  the  will  of  my  Heavenly  Father  ■ 
without  which,  Not  a  sparrow  falls  unto  the  Grounds 

He   notes   how   during   the    summer    he    testified  '- 

against  the  sin  of  uncleanness,  on  the  occasion  of  the  ! 
execution    of    two   young   women   for   child  murder. 


WITCHCRAFT,  1 1 7 

"  I  accompanied  the  wretches  to  their  execution,"  he 
writes,  "  but  extremely  fear  all  the  Labours  were  lost 
upon  them :  however  sanctify'd  unto  many  others." 
He  notes  how  his  preaching  at  Reading  started  a  re- 
vival there ;  how  he  conceived  the  idea  of  writing  the 
Church  History  which,  under  the  name  of  "  Mag^aJia 
CEristi  Americana,"  remains  by  far  the  most  notabje 
of  his  publications ;  how  in  July  a  fleet  arrived,  and 
he  started  down  the  harbour  to  preach  tq  it,  but  fell 
so  ill  that  he  had  to  go  home ;  and  how  he  recovered 
in  the  afternoon  to  find  that  there  was  yellow-fever 
aboard  the  ships,  and  to  be  convinced  that  an  Angel 
of  the  Lord  had  upset  his  stomach  for  the  purpose  of 
preserving  him  from  infection.  He  notes  how  he  has 
prayed  and  preached  against  vices  which  are  bringing 
judgments  on  the  community,  "  and  such  of  these  vices 
as  called  for  the  Correction  of  the  Magistrates,  I  hope, 
I  did  effectually  stir  up  some  of  the  Justices  to  pros- 
ecute." Then,  very  ecstatically,  he  notes  how  in  these 
dying  times  he  feels  himself  quite  ready  for  death : 
yellow-fever  was  abroad  now.  He  notes  a  resolution 
to  visit  widows  and  the  fatherless :  he  tells  how  he 
wrote  a  "  True  and  Brief  Representation  of  the  Coun- 
try," which  was  transmitted  "  with  all  the  Secrecy  de- 
sirable, unto  the  King's  own  hand :  who  Read  it  with 
much  Satisfaction,  and  I  hope,  formed  from  thence, 
in  His  own  Royal  Mind,  those  Characters  of  the  Coun- 
trey  whereof  we  shall  reap  the  good  Effects  for  many  a 
day."  He  notes  how  he  wrote  a  book  called  '^Winter 
Meditations,"  which  when  winter  came  on  was  pub- 
lished ;  and  how  towards  the  end  of  the  summer  he 
began  his  great  commentary  on  the  Bible,  —  a  collec- 


1 1 8  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

-^  tion  of  every  scrap  of  learning  he  can  discover  which 
has  any  bearing  on  Scripture.  He  worked  at  this  for 
twenty  years :  it  still  remains  in  manuscript,  under  the 
name  of  "  Biblia  Americana."  ^ 

Early  in  September,  he  went  to  preach  at  Salem, 
where  he  sought  "  Furniture  "  for  his  Church  History, 
and  endeavoured  *^  that  the  complete  History  of  the 
Late  Witchcrafts  and  Possessions  might  not  be  Lost." 
The  notes  from  which  he  intended  to  preach  were 
stolen  "  with  such  Circumstances,  that  I  am  .  .  .  satis- 
fy'd,  the  Spectres,  or  Agents  in  the  hivisible  World,  were 
the  Robbers."  But  he  preached  from  memory,  "  so  the 
Divel  gott  nothing."  He  had  an  interview  with  a  pious 
woman,  lately  visited  by  shining  spirits.  Along  with 
some  things  '*  to  be  kept  secret,"  she  prophesied  a 
new  "  Storm  of  Witchcraft  ...  to  chastise  the  Ini- 
quity that  was  used  in  the  wilful  Smothering  ...  of 
the  Last."  On  his  return  home,  he  found  Margaret 
Rule  down. 

"To  avoid  gratifying  of  the  Evil  Angels,  ...  I  did  .  .  . 
concern  myself  to  use,  and  gett  as  much  prayer  as  I  could 
for  the  afflicted  Young  Woman  ;  and  at  the  same  time,  to 
forbid,  either  her  from  Accusing  any  of  the  Neighbours,  or 
others  from  Enqui?'ing  anything  of  her.^  Nevertheless,  a 
Wicked  Man  wrote  a  most  Lying  Libel  to  revile  my  Con- 
duct in  these  Matters,  which  drove  me  to  the  Blessed  God 
with  my  supplications.  ...  I  did  at  first,  it  may  bee,  too 
much  Resent  the  Injuries  of  that  Libel;  but  God  brought 
good  out  of  it:  it  occasioned  the  multiplication  of  my 
prayers  before  Him  ;  it  very  much  promoted  the  works  of 
Humiliation  and  Mortification  in  my  Soul."  v 

1  In  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

2  In  Calef  himself  I  find  nothing  to  contradict  this. 


WITCHCRAFT.  119 

He  resisted  the  temptation  to  desert,  in  consequence 
of  the  Hbel,  the  lecture  at  the  Old  Meeting-House. 
As  for  his  missing  notes,  he  adds,  the  spectres  bragged 
to  the  possessed  girl  that  they  had  stolen  them,  but  con- 
fessed that  they  could  not  keep  them.    Sure  enough, 

*'  On  the  fifth  of  October  following  Every  Leaf  of  my  Notes, 
.  .  .  tho*  they  were  in  eighteen  separate  .  .  .  sheets,  .  .  . 
were  found  drop't  here  and  there  about  the  Streets  of  Lyn  ; 
but  how  they  came  to  bee  so  Dropt  I  cannot  Imagine,  and  I 
as  much  wonder  at  the  Exactness  of  their  preservation." 

On  the  3d  of  October,  his  little  daughter  Mary^  was 
ill.     He  prayed  for  her 

"  With  such  Rapturous  Assurances  of  the  Divine  Love 
unto  mee  and  mine^  as  would  richly  have  made  Amends  for 
the  Death  of  more  Children^  if  God  had  then  called  for 
them.  I  was  Unaccountably  Assured,  not  only  that  this 
r///A/ shall  be  Happy  forever,  but  that  I  never  should  have 
any  Child,  except  what  should  bee  an  everlasting  Temple 
to  the  Spirit  of  God  :  Yea,  That  I  and  Mine  should  bee 
together  in  the  Kingdome  of  God^  World  without  EndJ'^ 

On  the  6th,  the  child  died :  next  day  she  was  bur- 
ied :  her  epitaph  was  "  Gone  but  not  Lost."  On  the 
8th,  in  spite  of  his  bereavement,  he  administered  the 
sacrament ; 

**  And,  I  hope,  that  I  now  so  exemplify'd  such  a  Behaviour 
as  not  only  to  embolden  my  Approaches  to  the  Supper  of 
the  Lord,  but  also  to  direct  and  instruct  my  Neighbourhood, 
with  what  frame  to  encounter  their  Afflictions." 

On  the  loth,  a  military  training  day,  he  prayed  and 
fasted,  particularly  for  a  possessed  girl, —  doubtless  Mar- 

1  Born  in  1691. 


120  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

garet  Rule.  A  white  spirit  appeared  to  her,  with  word 
that  God  had  made  Cotton  Mather  her  father,  and 
thereupon  she  was  dehvered. 

He  notes  in  detail  how  he  drew  np^  a  plan  for  a 
Negro  meeting,  in  which  he  carefully  attended  both  tp 
ttarspirittrat'lvelfare  of  the  Africans  and  to  their  tern- 
pbT^t  duties^ jnj3iel^tiq^  which  it  had 

pleased  God  to  call  them ;  and  how  he  prayed  and 
preached  at  the  almshouse.  He  tells  then  how  he 
w^s  himself  accused  ofjitchrr^ift- :  the  tormentors  of 
a  possessed  young  woman  made 

**my  Image  to  appear  before  her,  and  they  madQ  them- 
selves Masters  of  her  tongue  so  far,  that  she  began  in  her 
Fits  to  complain  that  1  Threatened  her,  .  .  .  tho' whenshee 
came  out  of  them,  shee  owned  that  They  could  not  so 
much  as  make  my  Dead  Shape  do  her  any  Harm.  .  .  .  Her 
greatest  outcries  when  shee  was  herself^  were  for  my  poor 
prayers." 

Aware  of  the  terrible  danger  to  his  influence,  if  these 
rumours  should  gain  credence, 

**  I  was  putt,"  he  writes,  **  upon  .  .  .  Agonies,  and  Singu- 
lar ..  .  Efforts  of  Soul,  in  the  Resig7iation  of  my  Name 
unto  the  Lord  ;  content  that  if  Hee  had  no  further  Service 
for  my  Name^  it  should  bee  torn  to  pieces.  .  .  .  But  I  cried 
unto  the  Lord  as  for  the  Deliverance  of  my  Na?fte  from  the 
Malice  of  Hell,  so  for  the  Deliverance  of  the  Young  Woman 
whom  the  powers  of  Hell  had  seized  upon.  And  behold  ! 
.  .  .  the  possessed  person  .  .  .  was  Delivered  ...  on  the  very 
same  dayj  and  the  whole  plott  of  the  Divcl  to  Reproach  a 
poor  Servant  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  Defeated." 

In  January,  his  only  surviving  child,  Katharine,  was 
very  ill ;  praying  for  her,  he  was  assured  that  she  should 


WITCHCRAFT.  121 

recover,  and  presently  she  did.  His  last  note  for  the 
year  tells  how  he  offered  to  give  up  a  part  of  his  salary 
to  some  members  of  his  church  wbo^  lived  at  a  distance^ 
ami  were  for  starting  a  new^meeting^earerjiome  :  but 
nothing  cameof  It. 

Meanwhile  he  had  published  nine  works  :  two^ —  a 
volume  of  sermons,  and  jonae.  m^itations  on  the  last 
juclgment,  —  in  1092  ;  and_sevgji,  —  a  preface  to  Mos- 
ten's  **  Spirit  of  Man/'  two  volumes  of  sermons,  his 
warnings  against  uncleanness,  his  "  Winter  Medita- 
tions," a  letter  on  \Vitcbcraft,  and  his  "Wonders_pf 
the  Invi^k_World,"  which  was  printed  both  at  home 
and  abroad, — in  I693^ 

I  have  cited  with  perhaps  tedious  detail  his  account 
of  himself  during  these  years  that  proved  the  most 
critical  of  his  life,  because  I  have  not  found  it  much 
noticed  elsewhere,  and  without  it  he  cannot,  I  think, 
be  fairly  judged.  I  have  told  enough,  I  hope,  to  enable 
whoever  cares,  to  pass  honest  judgment  on  him.  There 
remain  two  or  three  facts,  without  which  our  notion  of 
the  great  tragedy  of  witchcraft  would  be  incomplete. 

Sewall,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  one  of  the  judges 
who  accepted  spectral  evidence.  In  the  years  that 
followed,  he  suffered  many  afflictions.  In  his  diary  for 
January,  1696-7,  is  this  note  :  — 

**  Copy  of  the  Bill  I  put  up  on  the  Fast  day ;  giving 
it  to  Mr.  Willard  as  he  pass'd  by,  and  standing  up  at 
the  reading  of  it,  and  bowing  when  finished ;  in  the 
Afternoon. 

"  Samuel  Sewall,  sensible  of  the  reiterated  strokes  of  God 
upon  himself  and  family  ;  and  being  sensible,  that  as  to  the 
Guilt  contracted  upon  the  opening  of  the  late  Comission 


122  CO  TTON  MA  THER, 

of  Oyer  and  Terminer  at  Salem  (to  which  the  order  for  this 
Day  relates)  he  is,  upon  many  accounts,  more  concerned 
than  any  that  he  knows  of,  Desires  to  take  the  Blame  and 
shame  of  it,  Asking  pardon  of  men,  And  especially  desiring 
prayers  that  God,  who  has  an  Unlimited  Authority,  would 
pardon  that  sin  and  all  other  his  sins  ;  personal  and  Rela- 
tive :  And  according  to  his  infinite  Benignity,  and  Sover- 
eignty, Not  Visit  the  sin  of  him,  or  of  any  other,  upon 
himself  or  any  of  his,  nor  upon  the  Land :  But  that  He 
would  powerfully  defend  him  against  all  Temptations  to  Sin, 
for  the  future;  and  vouchsafe  him  the  efficacious,  saving 
Conduct  of  his  Word  and  Spirit." 

It  is  said  that  when  Stoughton,  the  Chief  Justice  of 
the  Court  of  Oyer  and  Terminer,  heard  what  Sewall 
had  done,  he  declared  that  he  had  no  such  confession 
to  make,  having  acted  according  to  the  best  light  God 
had  given  him.^ 

In  Cotton  Mather's  diaries  for  later  years  ^  are  two 
entries  that  belong  here.  The  first  was  made  at  this 
very  time,  January  15th,   1696-7. 

"  Being  afflicted  last  Night,"  it  runs,  "  with  Discouraging 
Thoughts  as  if  unavoidable  fnarks  oi  the  Divine  Displeas- 
ure must  overtake  my  Family,  for  my  not  appearing  with 
vigour  enough  to  stop  the  proceedings  of  the  Judges,  when 
the  Inextricable  Storm  from  the  Invisible  ^^r/^ assaulted 
the  Countrey,  I  did  this  morning  in  prayer  with  my  Fam- 
ily, putt  my  Family  into  the  merciful  Hands  of  the  Lord. 
And  with  Tears  I  Received  Assurance  of  the  Lord  that 
marks  of  His  Indignation  should  not  follow  my  Family, 
but  that  having  the  Righteousfiess  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
pleading  for  us,  Good?iess  and  Mercy  should  foUow  us  and 
Signal  Salvation  of  the  Lord." 

1  Sewall's  Diary,  I.  446,  note. 

2  Both  diaries  are  in  possession  of  the  American  Antiquarian 
Society. 


WITCHCRAFT,  123 

The  other  entry  comes  years  later.  On  the  night 
between  the  15th  and  i6th  of  April,  1713,  he  held  a 
vigil :  in  it  he  prayed  that  many  books  which  he  had 
published  might  do  the  good  in  the  hope  of  which  he 
had  written  them ;  and  finally,  in  the  troubled  per- 
plexity of  spirit  that  had  been  growing  during  these 
long  years,  when  his  public  influence  and  the  public 
power  of  the  church  had  been  constantly  waning,  he 
wrote  these  words  :  — 

"  I  also  entreated  of  the  Lord,  that  I  might  understand 
the  meaning  of  the  Descent  from  the  Invisible  World, 
which  nineteen  years  ago  produced  in  a  Sermon  from  me, 
a  good  part  of  what  is  now  published." 


VII. 

The  End  of  Sir  William  Phipps. 


1692-1695. 

i 

The  importance  to  the  Mathers  of  the  tragedy  of  j 

witchcraft  has  warranted  me,  I  think,  in  treating  the  j 

matter   by   itself.     Before   we   proceed,  however,  we  I 

must  glance  at  certain  other  matters  that  were  in  pro-  , 

gress  at  the  same  time.     It  was  not  witchcraft  alone,  \ 
perhaps  hardly  witchcraft  at  all,  which  in  1694  brought 

to  a  close  the  administration  of  Sir  William  Phipps,  and  ■ 

with  it  the  control  of  the  Mathers  in  affairs  of  state.  | 

Witchcraft  was  by  no  means  the  only  thing  that  both-  | 

ered  poor  Sir  William.    There  were  French  and  Indian  I 

wars,  Canada  way,  which  he  managed  rather  clumsily.  ' 

And  there  was  a  great  deal  of  political  trouble  at  home,  j 

The  new  Charter  was  not  popular.     The  people  had  | 

been  used  to  electing  their  own  governors  :  what  priv-  1 

ileges  Increase  Mather  had  secured  for  them  failed,  in  '■ 

the  popular  imagination,  to  balance  the  fact  that  their  ! 

chief  executive  officer  was  a  nominee  of  the  King,  and  ; 

that  he   proved,  after  all,  by  no   means  the  sort  of  . 

man  they  would  have  chosen.     Honest  enough^yfjy=.  ' 

J:new,  this  hot-headed,  uneducated,  self-made,  self-  ; 

j8da5^;Sir*/WnHam^                                                       of .  j 
naildl^dininist^^                     The_  democratic    spjrit^: 

declared  itself  more  and  more  vigorously  against  him  :  \ 


THE  END  ^  SIR   WILLIAM  PHIPPS.       125 

not  a  few  ministers  took  that  side.  And  the  old  theoc- 
racy, represented  by  the  Mathers,  found  itself  at  last 
quite  divorced  from  the  popular  party ;  and  at  most  a 
power  behind  the  throne  of  the  royal  Governor.  From 
this  time  on,  in  fact,  the  politics  of  Massachusetts  was 
not  a  question  of  theocracy  and  democracy,  but  was 
rather  a  struggle,  which  culminated  in  the  American^ 
Revolution,  between  the  royal  power  and  the  rights  of 
the  people. 

The  chief  figure  in  the  opposition  was  Elisha  Cooke, 
a  gentleman  who  had  been  associated  with  Increase 
Mather  in  the  mission  to  England,  and  who  had  bit- 
terly opposed  the  acceptance  of  the  new  Charter.  A 
few  of  Sewairs  notes  show  how  matters  ran  in  Boston. 
In  November,  1692,  Cooke  came  home;  and  on  the 
15th  he  kept  a  day  of  thanksgiving  for  his  safe  ar- 
rival. Most  of  the  Boston  worthies  joined  him  in  the 
festival ;  but  Sewall  notes :  "  Mr.  Mather  not  there, 
nor  Mr.  Cotton  Mather.  The  good  Lord  unite  us  in 
his  Fear,  and  Remove  our  Animosities."  The  next 
May,  in  the  teeth  of  an  election  sermon  preached  by 
Increase  Mather  on  the  great  benefit  of  primitive  coun- 
sellors,^ Cooke  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Gover- 
nor's Council,  along  with  certain  other  opponents  of 
the  government.  On  the  ist  of  June,  Sir  William 
used  his  privilege  to  veto  the  election  of  Cooke. 
"June  8,"  notes  Sewall,  "Mr.  Danforth  labours  to 
bring  Mr.  Mather  and  Mr.  Cook  together,  but  I  think 
in  vam.  Is  great  wrath  about  Mr.  Cook's  being  re- 
fused, and  'tis  supposed  Mr.  Mather  is  the  cause." 
We  begin  to  see  more  of  what  poor  Cotton  Mather 
I  See  Quincy,  I.  73. 


126  COTTON  MAT 


I 
meant    by  resolving   not   to   waste   precious  time   in  ] 

personal   quarrels  towards  the  end  of  1692.     On  the  ; 

nth  of  July,  Sewall  notes,  Cotton  Mather  prayed  at  j 

the  opening  of  the  Council;    he  prayed  there  again  1 

on  the  15th;  and  in  the  afternoon  of  that   day  the  i 

Governor  dissolved  the  assembly,  being   "much  dis-  \ 

gusted  .  .  .  about  the  not  passing  of  the  Bill  to  regu-  ' 

lat  the  house  of  Representatives." 

The  bill  in  question  was  passed  on  the  25  th  of  No-  ; 
vember.  To  all  appearances  a  mere  political  device  ; 
for  strengthening  the  power  of  the  government  at  a  ' 
given  moment,  it  has  proved  perhaps  the  most  mis-  I 
chievous  measure  in  the  whole  madcap  history  of ; 
American  legislation.  S<;|^  far  as  the  Mathers  were  re-  ; 
sponsible  for  it,  they^did  their  utmost  to  weaken  the  j 
character  of  legislative  hgcWe^  ^rr^^^^^^r.^^^  fV»ig  pp^j^f-  j 
nent.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  in/16 95^.  the  opposition  to  \ 
thejgaJiefftmeuL^as  far^trongei  in  Boston, Ih^^n^  the  ■ 
\  CQUfitry :  chiefly,  ifjXQt  wholly,  to  weaken  the,  opposi-  ^ 
tionjujhejegislature^^jbi^^^^^  provided  that  a  repre-  i 
sentative  giust  reside  in  the  place  he  repiesented*  It  i 
has  been  followed  in  practice  throughout  America :  as  ; 
a  consequence  no  American  constituency  is  able  to-  \ 
day  to  elect  a  competent  representative  unless,  by  the  \ 
blessing  of  providence,  a  competent  person  happens  to  i 
reside  among  them.  And  as,  in  the  nature  of  things,  ! 
the  most  able  men  generally  congregate  in  large  cities,  ; 
the  greater  part  of  every  American  legislature  is  com- 
posed of  men  personally  insignificant.  : 

But  even  this  device  proved  of  little  use.     In  addi-  j 
tion  to  his  other  troubles,  Sir  William  was  always  get- 
ting into  hot  water  on  his  own  account.     Early   in  ' 


THE  END   OF  SIR    WILLIAM  PHIPPS.       1 27 

his  administration,  he  had  a  difficulty  with  the  collector 
of  the  port  of  Boston,  which  culminated  in  a  hand-to- 
hand  fight.  In  January,  1693,  another  difficulty  with 
the  captain  of  a  xoyaL&igate^ brought  upon  the. captain 
g  Cj,^^"g  at_the  hands  of  .Sir^William  in  the  streets  of 
Boston.  It  was  chiefly  for  this,  appar^entTyi'tfiat  he  was 
summou£d>-lQ  England  to  explain  his  conduct.  After 
all,  the  godly,  self-made  adventurer  had  not  proved 
the  Governor  the  Mathers  hoped  for :  he  was  not  one 
to  make  friends  for  the  new  Charter, 

A  few  of  Sewall's  notes  for  November,  1694,  give 
the  most  vivid  pictures  of  his  last  days  in  New 
England. 

**Nov.  r.  .  .  .  Capt.  Dobbins  refusing  to  give  Bail,  the 
Sheriff  was  taking  him  to  Prison,  and  Sir  William  Phips 
rescued  him,  and  told  the  Sheriff  He  would  send  him,  the 
Sheriff,  to  prison,  if  he  touch'd  him,  which  occasioned 
very  warm  discourse  between  Him  and  the  Lieut.  Gover- 
nour."  —  "Nov.  3.  .  .  .  Governour  adjourns  the  General 
Court.  .  .  .  Several  of  the  Council  desired  a  dissolution, 
lest  some  Emergency  should  require  the  Calling  of  an  As- 
sembly, and  this  adjournment  bind  our  hands  :  but  the 
Governour  would  not  hearken  to  it.  .  .  .  Said,  This  Court 
is  dissolved  to  such  a  time ;  being  put  in  mind  of  his  mis- 
take, said  I  mean  Adjourn'd."  —  "  Nov.  9.  .  .  .  Lieut.  Gover- 
nour and  Council  dine  at  James  Meers's:  The  Treat  was 
intended  for  the  Governour;  but  is  so  offended  at  Capt.  Dob- 
bins Imprisonment,  that  He  comes  not,  nor  Mr.  Mather  the 
Father,  nor  Son  .  .  . ;  so  chair  at  the  uper  end  of  the 
Table  stands  empty.  Note.  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  was  sick 
of  a  grievous  pain  in  his  face,  else  He  had  been  there,  as  he 
told  me  afterward."  —  "Seventh-day,  Nov.  17th.  .  .  .  Just 
about  Sunset  or  a  little  after,  the  Governour  goes  from  his 
House  to  the  Salutation  Stairs,  and  there  goes  on  board  his 


128  COTTON  MA  THER. 

Yatcht ;  Lieut.  Governour,  many  of  the  Council,  Mr.  Cot- 
ton Mather,  Capts.  of  Frigatts,  Justices,  and  many  other 
Gentlemen  accompanying  him.  'Twas  six  oclock  by  that 
time  I  got  home,  and  I  only  staid  to  see  them  come  to  sail. 
Guns  at  the  Castle  were  fired  about  seven  :  Governour 
had  his  Flagg  in  main  top.  Note.  Twas  of  a  seventh  day 
in  the  even  when  the  Governour  came  to  Town,  and  so  tis 
at  his  going  off,  both  in  darkness :  and  uncomfortable, 
because  of  the  Sabbath." 

Stoughton,  the  Lieutenant  Governor,  was  left  at  the 
head  of  affairs  for  several  years.  In  March,  Cooke 
was  elected  to  the  Council,  where  he  served  annually 
till  Joseph  Dudley's  time. 

Two  or  three  more  notes  of  SewalPs  tell  a  little  of 
Cotton  Mather,  and  all  the  rest  there  is  to  tell  of  poor 
blundering  Sir  William. 

**  Monday,  April  29,  1695.  .  .  .  About  2  P.  M.  a  very 
extraordinary  Storm  of  Hail,  so  that  the  ground  was  made 
white  with  it,  as  with  the  blossoms  when  fallen.  .  .  .  Mr. 
Cotton  Mather  dined  with  us,  and  was  with  me  in  the  new 
Kitchen  when  this  was;  He  had  just  been  mentioning  that 
more  Ministers  Houses  than  others  proportion  ably  had 
been  smitten  with  Lightening  ;  enquiring  what  the  meaning 
of  God  should  be  in  it.  Many  Hail  Stones  broke  throw 
the  Glass  and  flew  to  the  middle  of  the  Room.  ...  I  got 
Mr.  Mather  to  pray  with  us  after  this  awfull  Providence  ; 
He  told  God  He  had  broken  the  brittle  part  of  our  house, 
and  pray'd  that  we  might  be  ready  for  the  time  when  our 
Clay-Tabernacles  should  be  broken.  ...  I  mentioned  to 
Mr.  Mather  that  Monmouth  made  his  descent  into  England 
about  the  time  of  the  Hail  in  '85,  .  .  .  that  much  cracked 
our  South-west  windows." 

Whether  Sewall  thought  this  storm  equally  portentous 
does  not  appear.     But  on 


THE  END   OF  SIR    WILLIAM  PHIPPS,       129 

**  May^  sCi^l*  About  3  hours  News  comes  to  Town 
of  the  degtEZoL^irJ^jlliam  Phipps,  Feb^iSth,  at  which 
peo£le_arfe_ggnei^^]^^3rT!ay  sick  about  a  week  of  the 
new  Fever  as  'tis  called."  —  "May  6th.  .  .  .  Mourning 
Guns  are  fired  at  the  Castle  and  Town  for  the  Death  of  our 
Governour."  —  "May  8,  1695.  I  visit  my  Lady,  who  takes 
on  heavily  for  the  death  of  Sir  William.  Thinks  the  Lieu- 
tenant and  Council  were  not  so  kind  to  him  as  they  should 
have  been.'* 


VIII.  i 

i 

Harvard  College.  -j 
1636-1701. 

From  this  time   on,  the   history  of  Massachusetts  , 

takes  a  course  of  less  interest  to  us.     Stoughton,  the  ! 

Lieutenant  Governor,  remained  at  the  head  of  affairs  - 

until  1699,  when  Lord  Bellomont,  who  had  been  ap-  ] 

pointed  Governor  some  time  before,  came  to  Boston.  \ 
Two  years  later  Bellomont   died.      In    1702    Joseph 

Dudley,  who  had  been  virtually  an  exile  from  Massa-  i 

chusetts  since  he  was  shipped  to  England  with  Andros,  ; 

was  appointed  Governor.     There  is  reason  to  believe  I 

that  his  appointment  was  much  advanced  by  a  letter  ! 

from  Cotton  Mather,  which  Dudley  showed  the  King,  i 
stating  that  "there  was  not  one  minister  nor  one  of 

the  Assembly  but  were  impatient  for  his  coming."  ^  j 

The  chief  public  affairs  in  Stoughton^s  time  were  con-  i 

nected  with  the  French  and  Indian  wars  in  Maine.    In  ■ 

Bellomont's  time,  the  legislature  estabUshed  a  judiciary  j 

in  a  form  which  ultimately  led  to  trouble  with  Eng-  j 

land,  and  began  the  series  of  squabbles  with  the  Gov-  \ 

emor  about  his  salary  which  lasted  well  through  Cotton  ■ 
Mather's  day.     Bellomont's  most  notablfi-acLwas^^eri^^ 
Jiapsjhp  suppresgipn  ofpiracy :  it  was  he  who  b^pught 
Captain  Kidd  to  justice.     In  brief,  the  political  historj  __ 

1  Palfrey,  IH.  183. 


HARVARD  COLLEGE.  131 

c^  Masqa^tiusett^iiifi to  the jtime  of  Jo^^ph  Dudley  mny 
be  said  to  have  been  a  slowly  strengthening  opposition 
jnthe^  legislature  — ^^d  so  among  the  people  —  to  the 

T)OWer  of  thf  Onvemnr  nnr|_f]hp£:rr>wn. 

With  all  tl^is;  t;|ig  Mathers  h^iiJaxJesS-tQ^dp  jJbftn 
fljjj]  thp^^jitirs  nf^fnrlipf  timp<;.  It  is  very  typical  of 
their  history,  and  of  the  history  of  the  theocratic  party 
in  Massachusetts,  that,  from  this  time  on,  their  most 
notable  public  activity  concerns  not  the  Province,  / 
but  Harvard  College.  It  will  be  worth  our  while,  then, 
hastily  to  glance  at  the  history  of  this  institution. 

This  has  been  very  thoroughly  written  by  President 
Quincy.  In  1636,  only  sev6n  years  after  the  arrival  of 
Governor  Wijithiop  with  the  first  Charter  of  the  Colony, 
the  General  Court  voted  four  hundred  pounds  ^^  towards 
y  a  School  or  College^"  Two  years  later,  the  Rev.  John 
Harvard,  a  young  graduate  of  Cambridge  who  had  emi- 
grate3^b  Charlestown,  died,  leaving  half  Qf_  his  estate, 
and  his  whole,  lihrarv  to  ^he  new  College.  With  this 
encouragement,  the  College  was  immediately  opened, 
and,  in  honour  of  its  first  benefactor,  received  the  name 
of  Harvard.  In  1642  a  Board  of  Overseers  was  estab- 
lished, consisting  of  the  Governor  and  Deputy  Gover- 
nor, all  the  magistrates,  and  the  teaching  elders  of  the 
six  adjoining  towns.  In  1650,  a  charter  was  granted 
by  the  General  Court,  placing  the  government  of  the 
College  in  the  hands  of  a  Corporation,  consisting  of 
the  President,  the  Treasurer,  and  five  Fellows  named 
in  the  act,  and  empowered,  with  the  counsel  and  con- 
sent of  the  Overseers,  to  perpetuate  themselves.  Un- 
der this  charter,  after  various  vicissitudes  and  some 
very  radical  changes  in  the  nature  of  the  Board  of 


132  COTTON  MATHER. 

Overseers, — who  are  now  elected  by  the  alumni,  —  the 
College  is  governed  at  the  present  day. 

Amid  the  utmost  poverty  and  privation  the  College 
began  its  work,  which  was  chiefly  to  educate  the  more 
p  promising  youth  of  the  Colony  to  a  point  which  should 
render  them  efficient  ministers  of  the  Gospel  in  the  in- 
evitable days  when  the  emigrant  ministers  should  be  no 
more.  What  manner  of  men  it  turned  out  we  should 
know  by  this  time :  both  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather 
were  graduates  of  Harvard;  and  Sibley's^  amazingly 
careful  biographies  of  those  who  graduated  before  1689 
prove  the  Mathers  to  have  been  typical  men.  It  is  curi- 
ously characteristic  of  Harvard,  however,  that  the^Jrst^ 
two  Presujents — if  we  except,  as  the  records  do,  a  rather 
disreputable  person  who  was  for  a  little  while  made  mas- 
ter of  the  school  —  were  decidedly  inclined  ,tQjieresy_ 
ip-the  miatter^bapjtisin.  Earnest,  devoted,  learned,  ill 
paid,  half  starved,  they  gave  every  energy  to  the  College ; 
and  before  Chauncy,  the  second  President,  died,  he  be- 
gan to  see  the  gifts  to  the  College  come  in,  which  have 
continued  to  the  present  time.  The  third  President, 
Leonard  Hoar,  came  from  England  to  take  office.  For 
some  obscure  reason  he  was  unpopular :  there  were 
intrigues  against  him,  which  encouraged  the  students  — 
in  the  words  of  Cotton  Mather  ^  —  to  turn  "  cud-weeds, 
and,  with  great  violations  of  the  fifth  Commandment, 
set  themselves  to  travestie  whatever  he  did  and  said^ 
He  resigned,  and  is  believed  to  have  died  of  a  broken 
heart.  His  successor,  Urian  Oakes,  seems  to  have 
been  the  leader  of  the  intrigues  against  him  :   he  seems 

1  Harvard  Graduates,  3  vols. 

2  Magnalia,  IV.  I.  §  5. 


HARVARD  COLLEGE,  133 

to  have  been  orthodox,  however,  if  we  may  credit  the 
words  in  which,  as  we  have  seen,  he  addressed  young 
Cotton  Mather  in  1678.^  When  he  died,  in  1681,  In- 
crease Mather  was  chosen  his  successor.  He  decHned, 
and  so  did  another  reverend  gentleman;  but  John 
Rogers,  who  became  the  fifth  President  of  the  Col- 
lege, survived  his  inauguration  less  than  a  year  j  and  in 
1685  Increase  Mather  finally  accepted  the  office.  He 
took  it  on  condition  that  he  should  not  reside  at  Cam- 
bridge, but  should  be  permitted  to  continue,  at  the 
same  time,  his  pastoral  work  at  the  Second  Church 
in  Boston.  He  held  it  throughout  his  mission  to  Eng- 
land :  he  retained  it  throughout  the  administrations  of 
Phipps,  Stoughton,  and  Bellomont,  under  circumstances 
which  we  shall  have  to  consider  in  some  detail. 

For  what  reason  no  man  knows,  the  acts  of  the  Gen- 
eral Court  which  founded  and  moulded  the  College 
contained  no  phrases  which  could  fairly  bind  it  to  any 
sectarian  policy.  In  16^2,  piety  is  the  only  terra  used 
that  connects  the  College  with  any  distinct  religious 
principle;  in  1650,  there  appears  no  more  stringent 
term  than  godliness  ;  and  the  first  seal  of  the  College, 
adopted  on  the  27th  of  December,  1643,  bears  only 
the  word  "  Veritas."  "  It  was  not  until  Increase  Math- 
er's time,  in  all  probability,  that  affairs  led  to  the 
adoption  of  the  other,  and  far  less  characteristic,  motto 
still  in  use,  —  "  Christo  et  Ecclesiae."  ^  Whether,  as 
President  Quincy  inclined  to  think,  this  apparently 
studied  religious  liberality  was  real,  may  perhaps  be 
doubted :  there  is,  I  think,  about  as  much  reason  for 

^     1  Cf.  page  37.  2  Truth. 

*  For  Christ  and  the  Church. 


134  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

supposing  that,  at  the  time  the  charter  was  granted 
and  the  seal  adopted,  piety,  godUness,  and  truth  meant 
to  the  men  who  used  these  terms  nothing  more  or  less 
than  orthodox  Calvinism ;  that  to  have  defined  this 
further  would  have  seemed  to  them  a  waste  of  words. 
But,  whatever  the  reason,  as  the  political  power  of  the 
clergy  began  to  weaken,  it  became  evident  that  there 
was  a  dangerous  flaw  in  the  construction  of  their  in- 

^  nermost  stronghold.  To  the  defence  of  this,  then,  the 
Mathers  devoted  their  utmost  energy. 

In  1686  —  the  year  after  Increase  Mather  had  ac- 
cepted the  presidency — came,  as  we  have  seen,  the  final 
news  of  the  vacating  of  the  Charter  of  the  Colony. 
With  this,  of  course,  fell  all  the  minor  rights  that  the 
Colonial  authorities  had  granted  under  it,  and  among 
others  the  charter  of  Harvard  College.  For  twenty- 
one  years,  until,  in  December,  1707,  the  old  charter  of 
1650  was  not  too  regularly_reYiyi^  the  College  had 
no  settie3^govemment.  Throughout  this  period  the 
Mathers,  with  whomever  they  could  get  to  follow  them, 
fought,  aiid  worked,  and  prayed  for  3^  rhnrter  which 
^  should  permanently  commit  theHCqilfigQ  lo^^ie  care, 
!^of  rpen  vvhoy^e  rhipf  thougS^  'should_.l2e.  to  presgja^fr^ 
uncontaminated  the  ^ditjyp^  r>f  th^  fathers.  They 
hopelessly  failed ;  the  College  they  longed  to  see  the"^ 

\  perpetual  breeder  of  a  priesthood  has  grown  to  be  per- 
haps the  most  potent  nurse  of  every  shade  of  liberal 
protestantism  and  toleration  in  the    English-speaking 

.  world.  So  those  there  who  remember  the  Mathers  at 
all  nowadays  either  scoff  at  their  memory  or  abuse  it. 
But  I  think  we  shall  grow  to  feel,  as  we  read  their 
story,  that,  whatever  their  errors,  they  fought  their  ear- 


HARVARD  COLLEGE.  135 

nest  fight  with  all  their  hearts,  with  all  their  souls,  with 
all  their  might. 

During  Increase  Mather*s  _stav  ijx-England,  he  was 
constantly  endeavouring  to  get  a  rpyal^harter  for  the^ 
College,     in  an  interview  with  James  II.,  on  the  2d  of 
July,  1688,  he  asked  the  King  directly  to  grant  a  char- 
ter for  the  non-conformist  institution. 

**  *  Certainly,  Syr,' "  he  said ;  "  *  they  may  think  it  hard 
that  the  College  built  by  Non-Conformists,  should  be  taken 
from  them  and  put  into  the  Hands  of  Conformists.*  The 
King  replied,  *It  is  Unreasonable,  and  it  shall  not  be.'" 

—  "  What  ?  "  notes  Cotton  Mather  in  the  margin,   "  King 
James  himself  declare  so!"^ 

But  before  long  poor  King  James  was  where  he 
could  grant  no  more  charters,  and  Increase  Mather 
paying  court  to  William  and  Mary.  He  had  his  last 
interview  with  the  king  on  the  3d  of  January,  169 1-2. 

**  *  We  have  in  New  England,*  "  he  said,  as  he  took  his 
leave,  **  *  a  College  where  many  an  Excellent  Protestant 
Divine  has  had  his  Education.'  The  King  said,  *  I  know 
it.'  He  thereupon  added,  *  If  Your  Majesty  will  cast  a 
favourable  Aspect  on  that  Society,  it  will  yet  Flourish  more 
than  ever.'    The  King  returned,  <  I  shall  willingly  do  it.' 

—  And  so  Ended  the  Final  Conference.**  ^ 

Home  again,  he  busied  himself  at  once  to  obtain  a 
new  charter  for  the  College.  On  the  27th  of  June, 
1692,  the  very  month  when  the  first  of  the  Salem 
witches  was  hanged,  Sir  William  Phipps  signed  one. 
This  charter  vested  n|if;n1iitp  pnvvp]-  in  a  rnrporaHr^i^  nfv 
ten  persons,  every  one  of  vyhpm  w^s  selected  by  Increase 

1  Parentator,  XXV.  2  Parentator,  XXVIII. 


136  COTTON  MATHER. 

Mather  j  and  it  made  ng  pr()Ynion  for  any  kind  Q£jdsit-  ' 
ing  board.  It  was  immediately  sent  to  England  for  royal  \ 
approval.  Meantime  the  new  Corporation  assembled  i 
as  if  the  new  charter  had  been  thoroughly  sanctioned,  j 
and  among  their  first  acts  conferred  the  first  honorary  j 
degrees.  They  made  Increase  Mather  Doctor  of  Di-  ; 
vinity :  Leverett  and  Brattle,  who  had  managed  the  ' 
College  in  his  absence,  were  at  the  same  time  made  \ 
Bachelors  of  Divinity.  There  is  something  significant  j 
in  this  very  fact :  Leverett  and  Brattle  were  men  of  far  \ 
more  liberal  sentiment  than  Mather ;  Brattle  is  be-  | 
lieved  to  have  given  Calef  much  assistance  in  the  \ 
preparation  of  his  book  against  witchcraft ;  ^  and  the  | 
two  Bachelors  of  Divinity  proved  leaders  in  the  move-  1 
ment  that  finally  drove  the  Reverend  Doctor  from  , 
power.  I 

In  1693,  Increase  Mather  published  his  Election  Ser-  | 
mon  on  the  benefit  of  primitive  counsellors.^  "  Bene  ; 
agere  et  male  audire  regium  est,"  '  was  its  motto ;  and  ^ 
in  his  preface  he  tells  how  he  had  been  warned  in  Eng-  \ 
land  that  he  should  find  New  England  ungrateful  for  j 
his  public  services ;  and  how  he  had  replied,  that  he  \ 
would  go  to  New  England  and  see,  and  that  if  he  | 
found  their  prognostications  tme  he  should  see  his  I 
call  clear  to  return  to  England  again.  In  spite  of  this  ■ 
warning,  the  General  Court,  far  from  sending  him  to  ■ 
England  again,  passed  a  vote  that  the  President  of  ■ 
Harvard  College  ought  to  reside  at  Cambridge.  Mather,  i 
who  had  no  notion  of  resigning  his  church,  offered  his  , 
resignation  of  the  presidency  to  the  Corporation ;  they  ' 

1  Sibley,  III.  17,  18.  2  cf.  page  125.  i 

8  "  It  is  the  lot  of  kings  to  do  good  and  to  hear  evil."  • 


HARVARD   COLLEGE.  137 

refused  it,  and  requested  him  to  go  on  in  the  old  way. 
Here  matters  stood  in  July,  1696,  when  word  came 
from  England  that  the  King  had  vetoed  the  Charter  of 
1692,  for  the  reason  that  it  provided  no  visiting  board. 
The  effect  of  this  news  on  Increase  Mather  was  the  re- 
newal of  a  special  assurance,  which  persisted  for  years, 
that  he  should  once  more  be  permitted  to  do  work  for 
the  Lord  in  England.^ 

A  note  in  Sewall  relates  what  next  happened. 

"  Oct.  12.  [1696.]  Lt.  Governour  goes  to  Cambridge. 
.  .  .  Complemented  the  Pressedent  etc.,  for  all  the  respect 
to  him,  acknowledg'd  his  obligation  and  promis'd  his  Inter- 
position for  them  as  become  such  an  Alumnus  to  such  an 
Alma  Mater  :  directed  and  desired  the  Presdt  and  fellows 
to  go  on  ;  directed  and  enjoined  the  students  to  obedience. 
Had  a  good  diner.  .  .  .  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  took  off  Mr. 
Chauncy  and  Oakes's  Epitaphs  as  I  read  them  to  him." 

A  vivid  little  note  I  find  this :  Mather  the  father 
succeeding  for  the  time  in  somehow  continuing  his 
power  over  the  nursery  of  the  old  faith ;  Mather  the 
son  busy  meantime  in  gathering  material  for  the  great 
Church  History  which  remains  its  most  notable  Uterary 
monument. 

It  is  Sewall,  too,  who  gives  the  most  vivid  account  of 
what  came  next.  On  the  17th  of  December,  1696,  the 
Council  passed  a  new  charter. 

''  Dec.  18,"  writes  SewaU,  **  Mr.  Mather,  Allen,  Willard, 
C.  Mather  give  in  a  paper  subscribed  by  them,  shewing 
their  dislike  of  our  draught  for  the  Colledge  charter,  and 
desiring  that  their  Names  might  not  be  entered  therein. 

1  Quincy,  I.  App.  IX. 


138  COTTON  MATHER. 

One  chief  reason  was  their  apointing  the  Govr.  and 
Council  for  Visitor.  ^  .  .  .  I  doe  not  know  that  I  ever  saw 
the  Council  run  upon  with  such  a  height  of  Rage  before. 
The  Lord  prepare  for  the  Issue.  .  .  .  The  Ministers  will 
go  to  England  for  a  Charter,  except  we  exclude  the  Council 
from  the  Visitation.*' 

In  1697  Increase  Mather  drew  up  a  new  charter, 
which  was  somehow  fought  through  the  legislature. 
And  the  first  public  indications  of  the  troubles  that 
were  brewing  within  the  College  appeared  in  the  drop- 
ping of  Leverett*s  name  from  the  Corporation.  "  How 
the  Deputies  will  resent  it,"  writes  Sewall,^  "  I  know 
not."  And  there  was  a  petition  of  some  ministers  that 
Increase  Mather  be  sent  to  England  to  push  the  char- 
ter; and  the  General  Court  refused  it;  and  Mather 
threatened  to  resign.  Late  in  the  same  year,  Sewall 
gives  another  glimpse  of  the  poor  man*s  troubles  :  — 

"  Nov.  20.  Mr.  Willard  '  told  me  of  the  falling  out  be- 
tween the  President  and  him  about  Chusing  Fellows  last 
Monday.  Mr.  Mather  has  sent  him  word,  He  will  never 
come  to  his  House  more  till  he  give  him  satisfaction.'* 

Next  January  came  another  petition  that  Mather  be 
sent  to  England,  likewise  rejected.  And  at  the  end  of 
1698,  the  General  Court  renewed  the  vote  that  Presi- 
dent Mather  "  remove  to  the  College,  and  take  up  his 
residence  there." 

Two  accounts  are  extant  of  the  interview  that  fol- 
lowed, on  the  8th  of  December,  between  Mather  and 

1 1,  e.  Lay  overseers  threatened  the  predominance  of  the  clergy. 
2  Diary,  I.  450. 

5  Minister  of  the  Old  South.  The  year  before,  Willard  and 
Mather  had  joined  in  protesting  against  the  charter  of  1696. 


HARVARD  COLLEGE.  139 

the  representatives  of  the  General  Court  who  brought 
him  this  order. 

♦•  I  told  them,"  writes  Increase  Mather  himself,^  "  that  I 
was  discouraged.  .  .  .  Col.  Byfield  said  .  .  .  every  one  in 
the  House  desired  that  I  should  be  the  President,  etc.  I 
objected  that  I  was  not  willing  to  leave  my  preaching  work. 
Mr.  Sewall's  reply  was,  I  might  preach  to  the  scholars  by 
expositions  every  day.  I  told  them,  I  could  not  go  till  the 
church  spared  me."  —  **  Oh,"  he  writes  two  days  later, 
"that  God  would  accept  of  service  for  me  in  England 
according  to  my  faith  !  " 

Sewall's  account  of  the  interview  runs  thus  :  — 
**Twas  near  7  in  the  even  before  we  got  thither.  I 
began,  and  ask'd  excuse  for  our  being  so  late.  The  reason 
was,  most  of  us  were  come  from  a  Wedding  :  However,  I 
hop'd  it  was  a  good  omen,  that  we  were  all  coming  to  a 
Wedding.  .  .  .  We  urged  his  going  all  we  could;  I  told  him 
of  his  Birth  and  education  here ;  that  he  looked  at  ^ork 
rather  than  Wages,^  all  met  in  desiring  him,  and  should 
hardly  agree  so  well  in  any  other.  Mr.  Speaker,  in  behalf 
of  the  House,  earnestly  desired  him.  Objected  want  of  a 
House,  Bill  for  Corporation  not  pass'd  ;  Church  ;  [his  at- 
tachment to  it]  Must  needs  preach  once  every  week,  which 
he  prefered  before  the  Gold  and  Silver  of  the  West  Indies. 
I  told  him  would  preach  twice  aday  to  the  students.  He 
said  that  .  .  .  was  nothing  like  preaching." 

All  of  which  Mather  repeated  formally  in  a  letter  to 
Stoughton  on  December  18.*  And  putting  the  ques- 
tion of  leave  of  absence  to  his  church  a  few  weeks  later, 
he  had  the  satisfaction  of  being  refused.      In  April, 

^  Quincy,  I.  480,  481 

2  Among  other  troubles  was  a  dispute  about  salary. 

*  Sewall's  Diary,  I.  493,  494. 


1 40  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

1699,  came  news  that  the  King  would  not  approve  the 
charter  of  1697. 

The  next  month  Lord  Bellomont,  the  new  Governor, 
arrived.  In  his  message  to  the  General  Court,  on  the 
2d  of  June,  he  expressed  a  wish  to  promote  a  charter 
for  the  College.  A  few  days  later,  Cotton  Mather  had 
a  spiritual  experience  perhaps  worth  recording  here. 
On  the  7th  of  June,  1699,^  one  of  his  children  was  very 
ill.  He  had  had  a  particular  faith  that  she  should 
recover ;  but  as  she  grew  worse,  "  bemg  in  distress  lest 
my  particular  Faith  should  prove  but  a  Fancy,  and  a 
Folly,  and  end  in  Confusion,"  he  held  a  special  fast ; 
and  the  child  mended  forthwith. 

"  God  has  ordered  this  Matter,"  he  goes  on,  "  for  my 
Encouragement  about  several  greater  points  of  my  partic- 
ular Faith  not  yett  accomplished.  .  .  .  This  day  as  I  was, 
(may  I  not  say  ?)  in  the  Spirit^  it  was  in  a  powerful  manner 
assured  me  from  Heaven,  That  my  Father  shall  one  Day 
be  carried  into  England  :  and  that  he  shall  there  glorify  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ :  And  that  the  particular  Faith  which 
has  Introduced  it,  shall  be  at  last  made  a  matter  of  wonder- 
ful glory  and  Service  unto  the  Lord.  And  thou,  O  Mather 
the  Younger,  shalt  Live  to  see  this  Accomplished.  And 
thy  Son  2  too  shall  glorify  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  after  thou 
also  hast  followed  thy  Father  into  the  Kingdom  of  God." 

On  the  7th  of  July,*  the  Mathers  and  six  other  min- 
isters addressed  to  the  General  Court  a  request  that  in 
the  new  charter 

"our  holy  religion  may  be  secured  to  us  and   unto  our 
posterity,  by  a  provision,  that  no  person  shall  be  chosen 

^  The  diary  for  1699  is  in  possession  of  the  American  Anti- 
quarian Society. 
2  Cf.  pages  175-177.  ^  Quincy,  I.  99. 


HARVARD   COLLEGE.  141 

President,  or  Fellow,  of  the  College,  but  such  as  declare 
their  adherence  unto  the  principles  of  reformation,  which 
were  espoused  and  intended  by  those  who  first  settled  the 
country  and  founded  the  College,  and  have  hitherto  been 
the  general  profession  of  New  England.'* 

Such  a  provision  was  inserted  in  the  charter  passed 
on  the  13th  of  July ;  none  of  the  previous  charters  had 
contained  anything  of  the  kind.  On  the  i6th,  Cotton 
Mather  had  another  ecstatic  assurance  that  all  should 
be  well.  On  the  i8th,  Lord  Bellomont  objected  to  the 
religious  proviso  in  the  new  charter,  which  he  probably 
deemed  a  direct  attack  on  the  Church  of  England. 
This  charter,  then,  and  the  fervent  particular  faiths  of 
the  Mathers  came  to  nothing. 

Meantime  another  matter  had  been  growing  that 
sorely  troubled  the  Mathers.  Quincy  tells  the  story 
clearly.  We  have  seen  already  that  Leverett  and 
Brattle  had  begun  to  show  a  tendency  to  heterodoxy. 
In  1697,  Cotton  Mather  published  a  Life  of  Jonathan 
Mitchel,  Minister  of  Cambridge.^  To  this  Increase 
Mather  prefixed  a  dedicatory  letter  to  the  church  in 
Cambridge  and  the  students  in  the  College  there.  The 
substance  of  this  long  assertion  of  the  pristine  princi- 
ples of  New  England  is,  that  "  to  admit  persons  to  par- 
take of  the  Lord's  Supper,  without  any  examination  of 
**-'  the  work  of  grace  in  the  heart,  would  be  a  real  apos- 
tacy  and  degeneracy  from  the  churches  of  New  Eng- 
land '*;  and  he  warns  the  tutors  of  the  College  not'  to 
become  "  degenerate  plants  or  prove  themselves  apos- 
tate." This  was  a  direct  attack  on  Leverett,  Brattle, 
and  their  friends.      They  were  not  slow  in  retorting. 

1  Reprinted  in  the  Magnalia,  IV.  IV. 


142  COTTON  MATHER, 

At  the  beginning  of  1698,  they  organized  a  new  church 
in  Boston  on  new  principles,  expressly  rejecting  "  the 
c  imposition  of  any  public  relation  of  experiences  "  as 
the  condition  of  admission  to  the  Lord's  Supper.^  In 
November,  1699,  the  Rev.  Benjamin  Colman  arrived 
to  take  charge  of  the  new  church ;  an  accomplished 
young  man,  graduated  at  Harvard  College  seven  years 
before,  and  since  that  time  resident  in  England,  where 
under  William  of  Orange  clever  Dissenters  had  been 
having  a  very  comfortable  time.  A  few  notes  from 
Cotton  Mather's  diary  and  from  Sewall's  ^  will  tell  the 
rest  of  the  story. 

"7th,  loth  m.  [1699],"  writes  Cotton  Mather,  "A  com- 
pany of  headstrong  men  in  the  town,  the  chief  of  whom  are 
full  of  malignity  to  the  holy  ways  of  our  churches,  have 
built  in  the  town  another  meeting-house.  .  .  .  And  with- 
out the  advice  or  knowledge  of  the  ministers  in  the  vicinity, 
they  have  published,  under  the  title  of  a  manifesto^  certain 
articles  that  utterly  subvert  our  churches.  .  .  .  This  drives 
the  ministers  that  would  be  faithful  unto  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  and  his  interest  in  the  churches,  unto  a  necessity 
of  appearing  for  their  defence.  No  little  part  of  these  ac- 
tions most  unavoidably  fall  to  my  share." 

Two  days  later  Colman  called  on  Sewall,  who  talked 
at  some  length  about  the  startling  manifesto. 

*'  At  his  going  away,"  writes  Sewall,  "  I  told  him,  If  God 
should  please  by  them  to  hold  forth  any  Light  that  had  not 
been  seen  or  entertained  before ;  I  should  be  so  far  from 

1  Quincy,  I.  130,  131.  For  a  somewhat  fuller  account  of  their 
principles,  see  Palfrey,  III.  170,  seq. 

2  All  these  are  cited  in  the  Appendix  to  the  first  volume  of 
Quincy. 


:(. 


HARVARD  COLLEGE.  143 

env\  ing  it,  that  I  should  rejoice  in  it :  which  he  was  much 

affected  with." 

On  the  5th  of  January,  1 699-1 700,  poor  Cotton 
Mather's  mood  was  far  from  placid. 

"  I  see  Satan,"  he  writes,  "beginning  a  terrible  Shake 
onto  the  Churches  of  New  England,  and  the  Innovators 
that  have  sett  up  a  New  Church  in  Boston,  (a  New  one 
indeed  !)  have  made  a  Day  of  Temptation  among  us.  The 
men  are  Ignorant,  Arrogant,  Obstinate,  and  full  of  malice 
and  slander,  and  they  fill  the  Land  with  Lyes,  in  the  misrep- 
resentations whereof  I  am  a  very  singular  sufferer.  Where- 
fore I  set  apart  this  day  again  for  prayer  in  my  study,  to 
cry  mightily  unto  God." 

But  by  the  21st  of  January,  he  had  so  far  controlled 
himself  as  to  be  able  to  draw  up  a  proposal  of  terms 
on  which  the  old  party  and  the  new  might  agree. 
Bewail  tells  the  rest  of  the  story  for  the  moment. 

"  Jany.  24th.  The  Lt.  Govr.  calls  me  with  him  to  Mr. 
Willards,  where  out  of  two  papers^  Mr.  Wm.  Brattle  drew 
up  a  third  for  an  Accomodation  to  bring  on  an  Agreement 
between  the  New-Church  and  our  Ministers ;  Mr.  Coleman 
got  his  Brethren  to  subscribe  to  it.  —  Jany.  25th.  Mr.  L 
Mather,  Mr.  C.  Mather  [and  others]  wait  on  the  Lt.  Govr. 
...  to  confer  about  the  writing  drawn  up  the  evening  be- 
fore. Was  some  heat ;  but  grew  calmer,  and  after  Lecture 
agreed  to  be  present  at  the  Fast  which  is  to  be  observed 
Jany.  31.  —  Jany.  31.  Fast  at  the  New  Church.  Mr.  Cole- 
man reads  the  Writing  agreed  on.  .  .  .  Mr.  L  Mather 
preaches,  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  prays.  .  .  .  Mr.  Mather  gives 
the  Blessing.    His  text  was.  Follow  peace  with  all  men  and 

^  This  phrase  seems  to  me  to  dispose  of  Qiiincy's  charge 
that  Cotton  Mather  falsely  claimed  the  authorship  of  the  agree- 
ment. One  of  the  "two  papers"  was  doubtless  his.  See 
Quincy,  I.  237. 


144  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

Holiness.  Doct.  must  follow  peace  as  far  as  it  consists 
with  Holiness.  .  .  .  C.  Mather  pray'd  excellently  and  pa- 
thetically for  Mr.  Colman  and  his  Flock.  Twas  a  close 
dark  day." 

The  next  May,  Lord  Bellomont  in  his  address  to 
the  General  Court  advised  that  "  the  settlement  of  the 
College  will  best  be  obtained  ...  by  addressing  the 
King  for  his  royal  charter  of  privileges."  Accordingly 
the  General  Court  prepared  an  address  to  his  Majesty, 
humbly  soliciting  his  approval  of  a  charter  they  pre- 
pared in  form.  The  influence  of  the  Mathers  appears 
in  the  fact  that  neither  Leverett,  nor  either  of  the 
Brattles,  the  Rev.  William,  and  Thomas,  the  Treasurer, 
was  named  in  this  charter.  How  matters  now  ap- 
peared to  Cotton  Mather,  his  diary  tells.^  On  the 
1 6th  of  June,  1700,  he  writes  in  much  detail  of  his 
particular  faiths  about  the  College :  he  was  holding  a 
day  of  fasting  and  special  prayer. 

"  I  beg'd  of  the  Lord,"  he  goes  on,  "that  if  my  particular 
Faith  about  my  Father's  voyage  to  England,  were  not  a 
Delusion,  He  would  please  to  Renew  it  upon  mee.  All 
the  while  my  Heart  had  the  Coldness  of  a  Stone  upon  it, 
and  the  Straitness  that  is  to  be  expected  from  the  bare 
Exercise  of  Reason.  But  now  all  on  the  sudden,  I  felt 
an  inexpressible  Force  to  fall  on  my  Mind,  an  Afflatus 
that  cannot  be  described  in  words  ;  Nofie  knows  it,  but  he 
that  has  it;  If  2iii  Angel  from  Heaven  had  spoken  it  Ar- 
ticulately, the  communication  would  not  have  been  more 
powerful.  It  was  told  me  that  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  Loved 
my  Father,  and  Loved  mee,  and  that  Hee  took  Delight  in 

1  The  whole  passage  from  which  I  make  selections  is  printed 
in  Quincy,  I.  484-486.  The  diary  for  1700  is  in  possession  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


HARVARD  COLLEGE,  145 

us  as  in  Two  of  His  Faithful  Servants :  and  that  Hee  had 
not  permitted  us  to  be  Deceived  in  our  particular  Faiths^ 
but  that  my  Father  should  be  carried  into  England,  and 
there  glorify  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  before  his  passing  into 
Glory :  .  .  .  and  that  I  shall  also  live  to  see  it ;  and  that 
a  Sentence  of  Death  shall  be  written  on  .  .  .  our  par- 
ticular Faith,  but  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  Raises  the 
Dead,  and  is  the  Resurrection  and  the  Life  shall  give  a 
New  Life  unto  it!  Hee  will  do  it!  Hee  will  do  it!  — 
Having  Left  a  Flood  of  Tears  fetched  from  me  by  these 
Rayesi  from  the  Invisible  World  on  my  study-floor,  I 
Rose  and  went  unto  my  chair.  There  I  took  up  my  Bible, 
and  the  First  place  that  I  opened  was  at  Act  27,  23.  24. 
25,^  *  There  stood  by  me  an  angel  of  God,  whose  I  am,  and 
whom  I  serve,  saying,  Fear  not,  thou  must  be  brought  be- 
fore Caesar.*  ...  A  New  Flood  of  Tears  immediately 
gush'd  from  my  flowing  Eyes,  and  I  broke  out  into  these 
Expressions :  *  What !  Shall  my  Father  yett  appear  before 
Caesar?  Has  2in  Angel  irom  Heaven  told  me  so?  And 
must  I  believe  what  has  been  told  me?  Well  then,  It 
shall  be  so!  It  shall  be  so!'"  —  "And  now,"  runs  the 
next  entry,  "what  shall  I  say?  When  the  affair  of  my 
Father's  agency  .  .  .  came  to  a  turning  point  .  .  .  some 
of  the  Tories  so  wrought  upon  the  Governour  that  he 
deserted  ^  it.  The  Lieutenant  Governour  .  .  .  appeared 
with  all  the  Little  Tricks  imaginable  to  confound  it.  It 
had,  for  all  this,  been  carried,  had  not  some  of  the  Council 
been  inconveniently  called  off.  .  .  .  The  whole  affair  of 
the  College,  was  left  unto  the  management  of  the  Earl  of 
Bellomont.     So  that  all  expectation  of  a  Voyage  for  my 

1  Not  rageSf  as  Quincy  read. 

'•^  Like  most  of  Cotton  Mather's  quotations,  this  is  not  quite 
accurate  in  detail.  It  is  characteristic  of  his  eternal  hurry,  that, 
while  he  rarely  misses  the  spirit  of  a  quotation,  he  is  apt,  even 
when  citing  Scripture,  to  make  verbal  slips. 

*  Not  deferred,  as  Quincy  read. 
10 


146  CO  TTON  MA  TITER, 

Father  unto  England  on  any  such  occasion,  is  utterly  at  an 
end.  What  shall  I  make  of  this  Wonderful  matter.  Wait ! 
Wait !  " 

Before  he  had  waited  a  month,  his  particular  faith 
had  a  worse  buffet  still.  On  the  loth  of  July,  the  Gen- 
eral Court,  far  from  bidding  Increase  Mather  go  stand 
before  Caesar,  voted  more  decidedly  than  ever  that  the 
President  of  Harvard  College  ought  to  reside  there ; 
and  that  Increase  Mather  should  "repair  to  Cam- 
bridge as  soon  as  may  be."  Sewall  visited  him  the 
same  day, 

**  at  three  in  the  afternoon.  I  told  him  the  Honor  of  Atha- 
nasius,  Maluit  sedem  quam  Fidei  syllabam  ?nutare  :'^ 
Worthies  of  N.  E.  left  their  Houses  in  England,  and  came 
hither  where  there  were  none  to  preserve  ^  Religion  in  itSf) 
Purity.  Put  him  in  mind  how  often  God  had  renewed  his 
Call  to  the  work  which  was  to  be  considered.  That  were 
19  in  the  Council:  and  had  every  vote." 

But  poor  Increase  Mather,  who  had  stood  before 
three  Caesars,  had  no  mind  to  "leave  preaching  to 
1500  souls  .  .  .  only  to  expound  to  40  or  50  Chil- 
dren, few  of  them  capable  of  Edification  by  such  Exer- 
cises." '  At  least  he  must  get  the  consent  of  his  church, 
the  official  representative  of  the  1500  souls.  To  his 
grief,  they  gave  their  consent.  A  note  of  Cotton 
Mather's  early  in  July  tells  the  story, 

*'  There  was  a  coincidence  of  many  things,"  he  writes, 
"to  incline  the  Church  unto  such  a  Vote;  but  the  chief 

1  "  He  would  rather  change  his  home  than  a  jot  of  his  faith.'* 

2  May  not  this  be  a  misprint  iox persecute? 

8  I.  Mather  to  Stoughton,  16  December,  1698.  Sewall's 
Diary,  I.  493. 


HARVARD  COLLEGE,  147 

was,  The  Ferment  and  the  Tumult  of  the  Countrey,  about 
the  State  of  the  too-corrupted  College,  and  the  Danger  of 
its  falling  into  111  Hands,  if  my  Father  should  not  have  an- 
swered the  Cry  of  the  publick  about  it.  And  it  was  the 
apprehension  of  his  best  Friends,  that  if  my  Father  had 
now  declined  going  to  Cambridge,  the  Clamour  and  Re- 
proach of  all  the  Land  against  him,  would  have  been  insup- 
portable ;  he  must  have  Died  with  Infamy.  My  Father 
upon  the  vote  of  the  Church  immediately  (the  next  week) 
hastens  away  to  Reside  at  Cambridge.  But  I  am  now 
plunged  into  Distresses  of  two  sorts.  First,  The  Strangely 
melancholy  and  Disconsolate  Condition  of  Mind  which  my 
Father  has  carried  with  him  to  Cambridge,  (the  place,  which 
of  all  under  Heaven,  was  most  Abominable  to  him)  fills  me 
with  Fear,  what  may  be  the  Event.  If  he  would  be  cheer- 
ful, all  would  be  easy;  but  his  Spirit  is  prodigiously  un- 
framed,  unhing'd  and  broken  ;  and  if  the  Lord  be  not  very 
merciful  to  Him,  the  Name  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  will 
suffer  more  Dishonour  from  his  Uneasiness  than  I  am  wil- 
ling to  see.  Lord,  Rate  off,  and  Chain  up,  the  Tempter, 
that  falls  upon  my  poor  Father  with  such  molestation. 
Secondly,  I  am  now  Left  alone  in  the  care  of  a  Vast  con- 
gregation, the  largest  in  all  these  parts  of  the  world.  I  am 
afraid,  lest  now  they  grow  foolish  and  froward,  and  lest  the 
Devices  of  Satan  may  some  way  or  other  prevail  to  scatter 
them,  or  Lest  some  Distemper  arise  among  them.  And,  I 
am  feeble;  and  in  this  Town  I  have  many  Enemies:  in- 
deed, all  the  Enemies  of  the  Evangelical  Interests  are 
mine.  I  need  a  more  than  ordinary  prudence  and  patience, 
and  the  Defence  of  Heaven." 

For  all  this  time  there  were  other  troubles  entangled 
with  those  directly  concerning  the  College.  The  dis- 
sensions with  the  Brattle  Street  people  had  broken  out 
afresh.  Before  the  reconciliation  of  January,  1700, 
the  two  Mathers  had,  "  with  many  prayers  and  studies, 


148  CO TTON  MA  THER. 

and  with  humble  resignation  of  our  names  unto  the 
Lord,  prepared  a  faithful  antidote  for  our  churches 
against  the  infection  of  the  example,  which  we  feared 
this  company  had  given  them."  ^  The  reconciliation 
stopped  the  publication  of  this  antidote  :  but  in  March, 
the  Mathers  published  it,  —  a  book  entitled  the  "  Or- 
der of  the  Gospel."  It  was  a  direct,  violent  attack,  in 
general  terms,  on  the  innovations  that  were  creeping 
into  the  churches  of  New  England.  Some  notes  from 
Cotton  Mather's  diary  for  1700  tell  how  this  matter 
showed  itself  to  him.  On  the  ist  of  March,  the  day 
the  book  came  out,  he  writes, 

"The  Venome  of  that  malignant  Company  who  have 
lately  built  a  New  Church  in  Boston  disposes  them  to  add 
unto  the  Storm  of  my  present  persecution ;  for  it  may  bee 
never  had  any  men  more  of  that  Character  of  Grievous 
JRevolters^  To  bee  walking  with  Slanders^  than  too  many 
of  that  poor  people  have." 

On  the  14th  of  April,  he  comforted  himself  with  the 
reflection  that  as  Christ  was  persecuted  on  earth,  so 
would  naturally  be  His  faithful  servants :  he  ought, 
then,  to  be  thankful  for  his  sufferings. 

"  It  was  powerfully  sett  home  upon  my  heart,*'  he  adds, 
"that  I  have  in  this  Disposition  an  hifallible  Syjnptome^ 
That  my  Lord  Jesus  Christ  will  ere  Long  fetch  me  away  to 
Heavenly  Glory,  and  that  he  will  glorify  me  with  Himself 
world  without  End."  On  the  nth  of  May,  he  had  an  as- 
surance *'That  something  shall  befall  the  Disorderly  So- 
ciety of  Innovators  (now  causing  much  Temptation  and 

1  Cotton  Mather's  Diary,  21  January,  1700,  quoted  from 
Quincy,  I.  487.  For  all  this  matter  of  the  Brattle  Street  Church, 
see  Quincy,  Chap.  VII. 


HARVARD  COLLEGE,  1 49 

Iniquity  in  the  place)  that  shall  confirm  these  Churches  in 
the  Right  Ways  of  the  Lord." 

In  spite  of  this  assurance,  "  sundry  ministers  of  New 
England  "  published  the  "Gospel  Order  Revived,"  *  — 
a  vigorous  reply  to  the  Mathers*  "  Order  of  the  Gospel." 
On  the  4th  of  July,  less  than  a  week  before  his  ecstatic 
assurance,  so  dreadfully  disappointed,  that  his  father 
should  be  carried  into  England,  Cotton  Mather  writes 
that  there  are  hardly  any  but  his  father  and  himself 

"  to  appear  with  any  strength  of  Argument  or  Fortitude  in 
Defence  of  the  invaded  Churches,  Wherefore  I  thought  I 
must  cry  mightily  unto  the  Lord  that  He  would  mercifully 
Direct  me  ...  in  all  my  feeble,  but  faithful  Endeavours  to 
serve  Him  .  .  .  and  preserve  me  from  all  the  Devices  of 
Satan  .  .  .  to  blast  me  with  Reproaches  that  may  ...  In- 
capacitate me  for  Eminent  Serviceablencss.  I  also  thought, 
that  if  it  be  the  purpose  of  Heaven  that  the  Apostasy 
should  go  on,  they  that  will  vigourously  .  .  .  stand  in  the 
way  of  that  Apostasy  may  be  in  danger  of  a  Stroke  from 
the  Angel  of  Death,  that  so  a  way  may  be  made  for  the 
Anger  of  God.  But  then  I  resolved  ...  I  will  oppose  it, 
tho*  it  cost  me  my  Life,  Hereupon  the  Lord  sent  into  my 
Spirit  a  Sweet  Meditation,  That  my  Life  which  I  am  thus 
willing  to  venture,  shall  the  rather  be  prolonged ;  and  my 
Name,  which  I  thus  cast  overboard,  shall  be  the  more 
precious  in  the  Churches  of  the  Lord." 

On  the  2d  of  September,  when  poor  Increase  Mather 
was  at  work  expounding  to  his  "40  or  50  children  "  at 
Cambridge,  Cotton  Mather  writes, 

"  Observing  how  powerfully  the  Devices  of  Satan  are 
operating  to  bring  on  Apostasies  and  Innovations  upon  the 

^  For  a  curious  contemporary  comment  on  this  controversy, 
see  Sewairs  Letter-Book,  I.  255. 


150  COTTON  MATHER, 

Churches,  and  particularly,  a  Minister  of  some  Note  in  the 
Churches  for  his  piety^  having  published  a  Book  of  Wretch- 
ed Novelties,  which,  tho*  it  be  offensive  to  the  generalty  of 
Good  Men,  yett  is  Entertained  with  Gladness  by  a  carnal, 
Giddy  Rising  generation,  I  thought  it  my  duty  to  defend 
the  Churches." 

So  he  wrote  a  "  Defence  of  the  Evangelical  Churches," 
"whereto  my  Father  joined  with  me,  in  setting  his 
Name."  This  was  apparently  the  pamphlet  full  of 
passionate  vituperation  which  is  described  by  President 
Quincy. 

At  the  same  time,  another  attack,  and  a  more  direct 
one,  was  making  on  the  Mathers.  We  have  already 
seen^  how  profoundly  unimaginative  Robert  Calef 
was  stirred  by  what  seemed  to  him  the  deliberately 
monstrous  conduct  of  the  Mathers  in  the  matter  of 
witchcraft.  In  the  intervening  years  he  had  put  to- 
gether his  book  on  the  subject,  for  which,  Sibley  says,* 
"  he  was  furnished  with  materials  ...  by  Mr.  [Wm.] 
Brattle  of  Cambridge  and  his  brother  of  Boston,  gen- 
tlemen who  were  opposed  to  the  Salem  proceedings." 
Likewise  gentlemen,  I  may  add,  who  started  the  Brat- 
tle Street  Church,  and  in  College  matters  were  leaders 
of  the  opposition  to  the  Mathers.'*  An  honest  book,  I 
have  said,  it  seems  to  me ;  a  sensible  one,  if  it  be  good 
sense  to  have  no  glimmer  of  imagination ;  but  about  as 
^  appreciative  of  what  the  Mathers  really  were  as  a  good, 
practical  Yankee  of  to-day  might  be  of  Cardinal  New- 
man. It  was  printed  in  England :  it  arrived  in  Boston 
in  November,  1 700.     Increase  Mather  had  it  publicly 

1  Colman,  I  believe.  ^  See  page  105. 

8  Harvard  Graduates,  III.  17,  18.  *  See  page  144. 


HARVARD  COLLEGE,  151 

burned  in  Harvard  Yard,  thereby  doubtless  increasing 
its  vogue.  Just  at  this  moment  no  blow  could  have  hit 
the  Mathers  harder. 

"First  Calfs  book,''  writes  Cotton  Mather  on  the  28th 
of  December,  "  and  then  Coleman's  do  sett  the  people  in  a 
mighty  Ferment.  All  the  Adversaries  of  the  Churches  Lay 
their  Hands  together  as  if  by  Blasting  of  us  they  hoped 
utterly  to  blow  up  all." 

So  this  day  he  prayed  and  fasted.  His  devotions 
consisted  largely  of  the  singing  of  psalms.  His  psalm- 
book,  he  remarked  with  some  surprise,  opened  of  itself 
at  places 

"the  most  agreeable  perhaps  of  any  that  I  could  have 
chosen.  This  observation  may  easily  be  abused  unto 
superstition :  but  yett  sometimes  there  is  an  Angelical 
Agency  in  these  occurrences." 

But  the  losing  fight  was  almost  over.  On  the  1 7th 
of  October,  1 700,  Increase  Mather,  professing  ill-health, 
had  returned  from  Cambridge,  desiring  in  a  letter  to 
Stoughton  that  another  President  be  thought  of.  In 
February,  1701,  Samuel  Willard,  Minister  of  the  Old 
South,  was  made  Vice  President.  On  the  5  th  of 
March,  Lord  Bellomont  died  in  New  York,  leaving  the 
administration  once  more  in  the  hands  of  Lieuten- 
ant Governor  Stoughton.  On  the  4th  of  July,  Sewall 
visited  him,  confined  to  his  bed,  with  a  committee  of 
the  General  Court,  who  wished  to  arrange  an  adjourn- 
ment. 

"He  agreed  to  it,"  writes  Sewall,  "very  freely.  I  said 
the  Court  was  afflicted  with  the  sense  of  his  Honors  indispo- 
sition ;  at  which  he  rais'd  himself  up  on  his  Couch.    When 


152  COTTON  MATHER. 

coming  away,  he  reach'd  out  his  hand ;  I  gave  him  mine,  | 
and  kiss'd  his.  He  said  before,  Pray  for  me!  This  was  ^ 
the  last  time  I  ever  saw  his  Honor."  ^ 

Three  days  later  the  grim  old  Puritan  was  dead  :  he  ! 
had  been  one  of  the  crew  of  Andros ;  with  the  favour  \ 
of  the  Mathers  he  had  retained  office  in  the  time  of ' 
Phipps ;  with  the  best  light  God  had  given  him,  he  had ' 
done  to  death  the  Salem  witches ;  and  all  that  is  left  of  \ 
him  now  is  the  forbidding  portrait  in  Memorial  Hall,  i 
with  the  stiff  open  hand  that  tells  how  he  was  the  first ! 
native  benefactor  who  built  a  hall  for  Harvard  College.  \ 

The  executive  authority  now  vested  in  the  Council. ! 
On  the  6th  of  September,  1701,  the  General  Court' 
voted  that  Increase  Mather,  who  had  meanwhile  gone 
back  to  Cambridge  and  again  returned  to  Boston,  be  ; 
replaced  by  Mr.  Samuel  Willard,  who  promised  to  re-  ; 
side  at  the  College  one  or  two  days  and  nights  in  a  : 
week.  And  so  the  "good  President"  who  had  stood] 
before  Caesar,  who  had  won  for  Massachusetts  the  Char-  ] 
ter  under  which  she  flourished  for  more  than  eighty  ; 
years,  who  had  given  every  energy  of  his  life  to  the  de- 
fence of  the  old  theocracy  of  the  fathers,  was  left  at  j 
sixty-two  just  what  he  had  been  at  twenty-five,  and  ! 
what  he  remained  all  the  rest  of  his  life,  —  nothing  but ! 
the  Minister  of  the  Second  Church  in  Boston.  i 

Twenty-three  years  later,  when  Cotton  Mather  wrote  ' 
his  father's  life,  he  could  speak  thus  :  — 

**  His  abdication  was  after  all  brought  about,  I  will  but  ! 
Softly  say,  Not  so  fairly  as  it  should  have  been,  I  think,  ■ 
there  are  Thanks  due  to  me,  for  my  forbearing  to  Tell  the  \ 
Story  y  1 

1  Parentator,  XXIX.    See  pages  183-185. 


HARVARD   COLLEGE.  153 

At  the  time  he  was  not  so  calm.  It  is  probable 
that,  almost  at  this  moment,  he  had  the  sagacity  to 
make  his  last  forlorn  attempt  to  master  the  govern- 
ment, by  wTiting  to  Joseph  Dudley  the  letter  which 
clinched  his  appointment  to  the  governorship.^  Dud- 
ley might  be  grateful;  things  might  still  go  better. 
But  how  he  took  it  at  the  moment  appears  most  vividly 
in  a  note  of  Sewall's. 

**Oct.  20  [1701].  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  came  to  Mr. 
Wilkins's  shop,  and  there  talked  very  sharply  against  me  2 
as  if  I  had  used  his  father  worse  than  a  Neger ;  spake  so 
loud  that  the  people  in  the  street  might  hear  him." 

Later  notes  of  Sewall's  show  that  some  kind  of  rec- 
onciliation soon  followed.  So  does  a  letter  in  Sewall's 
Letter- Book.'  But  to  one  who  has  learned  from  Sew- 
all's artless  record  how  close  the  good  old  man's  fists 
were,  the  most  startling  of  all  his  notes  —  a  note  tjiat 
shows  how,  after  all,  his  conscience  smote  him  —  is 
this:  — 

**  Octr.  9.  I  sent  Mr.  Increase  Mather  a  Hanch  of  very 
good  Venison:  I  hope  in  that  I  did  not  treat  him  as  a 
Negro."  * 

1  Cf.  page  130. 

2  Sewall  was  of  the  Council  that  finally  dismissed  President 
Mather. 

»  Cf.  pages  183-1S5.  *  Diary,  II.  44. 


IX.  i 

Cotton  Mather's  Private  Life  until  the  Death   i 
OF  HIS  Wife.  j 

1696-1702. 

It  is  during  the  years  we  have  just  been  consider-i 
ing,  and  the  two  that  immediately  follow,  that  Cotton 
Mather's  diaries  give  us  the  most  continuous  view  of 
his  private  life.  The  revised  copies  of  his  diaries 
from  1696  to  1705  are  preserved.  The  story  of  In-^ 
crease  Mather's  presidency  seemed  important  enough 
to  be  considered  by  itself.  In  this  chapter  I  purpose 
telling  what  I  have  found  concerning  Cotton  Mather's 
personal  career  until  the  death  of  his  wife  in  1 702.      ; 

In  1694,  Sibley  tells  us,  he  published  two  books  J 
a  treatise  of  Early  Religion,  and  a  lecture  on  the  His-| 
tory  of  New  England.  In  this  year,  too,  his  fiftli 
child,  Abigail,  was  bom.  In  1695,  ^^  published  seven 
distinct  books :  four  volumes  of  sermons,  a  book 
against  the  Devil,  a  volume  of  biographies  of  eminent 
emigrant  ministers,  and  a  Life  of  Queen  Mary,  who 
was  just  dead.  In  this  year,  I  take  it,  was  born  his 
sixth '  child,  Mehitabel.  These  were  the  years,  we 
shall  remember,  when  Sir  William  Phipps  came  to 
grief  and  died,  and  when  Increase  Mather's  first 
charter  for  Harvard  College  was  still  in  the  hands 
of  the  King. 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  155 

The  next  year,  1696,  was  that  in  which  news  came 
of  the  royal  disapproval  of  the  College  charter;  iii 
which,  as  we  have  seen,  Stoughton  authorized  Increase 
Mather  to  continue  his  presidency  on  the  day  when 
Cotton  Mather  was  copying  the  epitaphs  of  Chauncy 
and  Oakes ;  the  year  in  which  the  objections  of  the 
Mathers  killed  the  first  College  charter  drawn  by  the 
Council ;  the  year  whose  close  brought  the  fast  at 
which  Sewall  put  up  his  confession  of  penitence  for  his 
share  in  the  witch  trials,  and  Cotton  Mather  put  his 
family  into  the  hands  of  God. 

His  diary  1  shows  that  he  began  the  year  in  a  state 
of  depression,  and  closed  it  with  more  or  less  satis- 
factory assurances  that  his  work  was  grateful  to  the 
Lord.  The  entries,  which  occur  about  once  a  week, 
are  mostly  in  general  terms  :  perhaps  the  most  notable 
thing  they  show  is  an  increasing  interest  in  foreign 
affairs,  concerning  which  he  had  occasional  prophetic 
assurances.  Early  in  the  year  he  wrote  his  Life  of 
Phipps,  which  Lady  Phipps  sent  abroad  for  publica- 
tion. I  have  found  only  two  or  three  entries  which 
seem  worth  noting  in  detail.^ 

The  first  is  for  the  2  2d  of  February,  a  day  on  which 
he  fasted,  with  abasement  and  depression,  and  was  re- 
warded by  assurances  that  something  should  come  of 
his  prayers  for  England,  Ireland,  and  Scotland. 

**  After  this  Day,"  he  goes  on,  *'  I  continued  full  of  such 
Dejected  and  Abasing  Thoughts  of  my  own  extraordinary 
Vileness  as  did  fill  mee  in  the  Day  itself.  Oh  !  the  Lord 
is  laying  of  me  Low !  ...  So  I  wrote :  and  so  it  must 

1  In  possession  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society. 

2  For  another,  see  Sparks's  American  Biographies,  VI.  261. 


156  CO  TTON  MA  THER, 

Come  to  pass.  For  28.  12.^  Early  this  morning  my 
daughter  Mehitabel  dyed  suddenly  in  its  Nurse's  Arms  : 
not  known  to  bee  dying  till  it  was  dead  of  some  sudden 
stoppage  by  wind:  The  wind  passed  over  the  Flower^ 
and  it  was  presently  gone*''  Next  day  the  child  was 
buried:  its  epitaph  was,  "In  Faith  of  the  Resurrection 
your  Bones  shall  flourish  like  an  Herb."  In  the  margin 
he  notes  that  he  "  Forgot  to  pray  for  M.  that  morning  "  : 
reproaching  himself,  he  found  that  the  child  was  dead  at 
the  time.  "Alas,"  he  adds,  "the  child  was  overlaid  by 
the  Nurse." 

The  only  other  notes  I  have  copied  for  this  year 
come  in  the  following  January.  One  I  have  already 
quoted,^  in  which,  on  the  occasion  of  the  fast,  he 
commends  his  family  to  God.  The  other,  for  the  23d 
of  January,  1696-7,  gives  a  little  glimpse  of  fact :  — 

"  So  extremely  cold  was  the  weather  that  in  a  Warm 
Room  on  a  great  Fire  the  Juices  forced  out  at  the  end  of 
short  billets  of  wood  by  the  Heat  of  the  Flame  on  which 
they  were  laid,  yett  froze  into  Ice  on  their  coming  out.*' 
So  he  gave  up  a  projected  fast,  "because  I  saw  it  impos- 
sible to  serve  the  Lord  without  such  Distraction  as  was 
Inconvenient." 

On  the  29th,  the  weather  seems  to  have  moderated  : 

.  at  all  events,   he  had  an  assurance  that  his   consort 

should  have  easy  travail.     The  next  day  she  was  out 

of  order ;    his  servant  was  ill ;    and  little  Nibby  *  fell 

into  the  fire,  happily  without  much  hurt. 

This  year  he  published  five  books  :  four  volumes  of 
sermons,  and  an  account  of  memorable  experiences 
of  those  captured  by  Indians. 

1  12  =  February.    Mather  begins  his  years  with  March. 

2  See  page  122.  ^  Abigail. 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  157 

The  next  year,  1697,  was  that  in  which  Increase 
Mather  drew  up  his  second  charter  for  the  College,  in 
which  the  first  application  for  his  agency  to  England 
was  refused,  in  which  he  threatened  to  resign,  and  fell 
out  with  Mr.  Willard  about  the  choosing  of  Fellows. 

Cotton  Mather's  diary  for  this  year  ^  is  more  interest- 
ing than  the  last.  One  of  its  mottoes  is  characteristic  ; 
•'  Tully,  in  his  Second  Book,  De  Natura  Deorum,  says, 
*  Netno  Vir  Magnus  sine  aliquo  Afflatu  Divino  unquam 
fuit'  "  *  He  began  the  year  by  an  ecstatic  birthday. 
A  week  later,  he  was  writing  to  Connecticut  for  relief 
for  famine-stricken  Massachusetts.  A  few  days  later, 
prayer  and  fasting  were  rewarded  by  an  assurance  that 
he  should  "  ere  long  bee  with  the  Innumerable  com- 
pany of  Holy  Angels,"  and  that  his  offspring  should 
want  for  no  good  thing.  And  on  the  2  7th  of  February 
another  fast,  ending  with  assurances  of  a  speedy  revo- 
lution in  England  and  France,  led  him  to  resolve  on 
daily  prayers,  like  Daniel's,  for  the  emancipation  of  the 
Church  from  captivity,  and  later  to  start  a  prayer- 
meeting  for  the  coming  revolution  and  reformation. 
The  close  of  this  note  is  a  good  example  of  his  man- 
ner of  recording  his  afflations  in  general :  — 

"  In  the  close  of  the  Day,  when  I  lay  prostrate  on  my 
Floor,  in  the  Dust,  before  the  Lord,  I  obtained  Fresh  and 
Sweet  Assurances  from  Him,  That  altho'  I  have  been  the 
most  Loathsome  Creature  in  the  World,  yett  His  Holy 
Spirit,  would  with  Sovereign  and  Glorious  Grace,  Take 
possession  of  me,  and  Accept  mee,  and  employ  mee,  to  glo- 
rify His  Name  exceedingly.     And  I  successfully  Renewed 

1  In  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

2  "  No  man  was  ever  great  without  some  afflation  from  God." 


1 5 8  COTTON  MA THER, 

my  Cries  unto  the  Lord,  that  Hee  would  visit  France^  and 
Great  Britain^  speedily,  with  a  mighty  Revolution^ 

A  little  later,  his  seventh  child,  Hannah,  was  bom. 
A  note   of  SewalPs   for  the  8th   of  April  gives  a 
characteristic  glimps6  of  Mather  :  — 

"  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  gives  notice  that  the  Lecture  here- 
after is  to  begin  at  Eleven, ...  an  hour  sooner  than  for- 
merly. Reprov'd  the  Towns  people  that  attended  no 
better ;  fear'd  twould  be  an  omen  of  our  not  enjoying  the 
Lecture  long,  if  did  not  amend.'* 

But  it  is  not  till  August  that  I  find  in  Mather's  own 
diary  anything  else  noteworthy.  On  the  20th,  he- held 
a  private  thanksgiving  for  his  life,  his  health,  his  speech 
freed  from  impediment,  his  library,  his  dwelling-house, 
his  consort,  his  children,  his  unblemished  reputation, 
"and  such  deliverances  granted  unto  the  Countrey 
that  my  opportunities  to  be  serviceable  have  not  been 
overwhelmed  in  the  Ruines  of  it."  That  evening  he 
went  into  his  empty  church,  where  he  had  much 
ecstasy.  In  the  midst  of  a  thousand  other  works  he 
had  finished  his  "  Magnalia,"  his  great  Church  History 
of  New  England. 

Though  several  years  passed  before  this  most  notable 
of  his  works  was  published,  we  may  perhaps  best  con- 
sider it  here,  at  the  moment  of  its  completion.  Its 
scope  and  purpose  are  w^ell  expressed,  I  think,  in  a  few 
words  from  the  General  Introduction  :  — 

"  It  may  be,  't  is  not  possible  for  me  to  do  a  greater  ser- 
vice unto  the  Churches  on  the  best  Island  oi  the  universe, 
than  to  give  a  distinct  relation  of  these  great  examples 
which  have  been  occurring  among  Churches  of  exiles,  that 
were  driven  out  of  that  Island,  into  an  horrible  wilderness, 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  159 

'•  merely  for  their  being  well-wishers  unto  the  Reformation. 
.  .  .  Tis  possible  that  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  carried  some 
thousands  of  Reformers  into  the  retirements  of  an  American 
desart,  on  purpose  that,  with  an  opportunity  granted  unto 
many  of  his  faithful  servants,  to  enjoy  the  precious  liberty 
ol^  their, Alinis try,  though  in  the  midst  of  many  temptations 
all  their  days.  He  might  there,  to  them  first,  and  then  by 
them,  give  a  s^^cimen  of  many  good  things,  which  He 
would  have  His  Churches  elsewhere  aspire  and  arise 
unto;  and  this  being  done,  he  knows  not^  whether  there 
be  not  all  done  that  New  England  was  planted  for;  and 
whether  the  Plantation  may  not,  soon  after  this,  come  to 
nothing,'' 

He  has  written  nothing  but  truth,  he  says  1  — 

"  I  have  not  commended  any  person,  but  when  I  have 
really  judged,  not  only  that  he  deserved  li,  but  also  that  it 
would  be  a  benefit  unto  posterity  to  know  wherein  he  de-  / 
served  it ;  .  .  .  yett  I  have  left  unmentioned  some  censura- 
ble occurrences  in  the  ^tory  of  our  Colonjes,  as  things  no 
less  unuseful  than  improper  to  be  raised  out  of  the  grave, 
wherein  Oblivion  hath  now  buried  them." 

That  defines  the  whole  book,  I  think  ^  it  seems  to  me 
an  honest  effort,  at  a  moment  when  the  old  order  was  "'^ 
changing,  to  preserve  and  emphasize  all  the  best  things      ) 
that  in  the  olden  time  had  been  thought,  and  said,   • 
and  done.    If  the  sons  could  but  be  brought  to  emulate 
the  virtues  of  the  fathers,  all  might  still  go  well.     And 
those  old  days  were  glorious  days  that  filled  Cotton 
Mather  with  enthusiasm ;    and   their  sins  and  errors 
might  best  be  tenderly  forgotten.     He  had  conceived 
the  book,  we  have  seen,^  in  1693.     Meanwhile  he  had 

1  Should  not  this  rather  be  "  I  know  not "  ? 

2  See  page  117. 


1 60  CO  TTON  MA  THER, 

been  incredibly  busy  with  all  sorts  of  other  matters : 
his  pastoral  duties,  politics,  the  College,  his  incessant 
private  devotions,  his  many  other  writings^  including 
the  great  "  Biblia  Americana,"  on  which  he  worked  for 
twenty  years. 

**  All  the  time  I  have  had  for  my  Church  History,"  he 
writes,  **  hath  been  .  .  .  chiefly  that  which  I  might  have 
taken  else  for  less  profitable  recreations ;  and  it  hath  all 
been  done  by  snatches,  ...  I  wish  I  could  have  enjoyed, 
entirely  for  this  work,  one  quarter  of  the  little  more  than 
two  years  ^  which  have  rolled  away  since  I  began  it." 

The  "Magnalia"  bears  throughout  traces  of  the 
crowded  haste  with  which  it  was  written.  It  is  flung  to- 
gether, not  composed  at  all.  There  are  seven  chief  di- 
visions, or  books :  the  first  recounts  the  history  of  the 
Colonies ;  the  second  contains  the  lives  of  governors  and 
magistrates,  closing  with  that  of  Sir  William  Phipps; 
the  third  contains  the  lives  of  some  sixty  emigrant  min- 
isters ;  the  fourth  tells  the  history  of  Harvard  College, 
and  contains  the  lives  of  ten  eminent  ministers  gradu- 
ated there ;  the  fifth  gives  an  account  of  the  orthodox 
creed  and  discipline  of  the  New  England  churches ;  the 
sixth  contains  a  record  of  many  remarkable  providences, 
judgments,  and  the  like,  that  have  been  experienced 
in  New  England ;  the  seventh  tells  of  the  "  Wars  of 
the  Lord,"  or  the  various  disturbances  that  have  at-^ 
tacked  the  churches  and  the  people  there.     Along  with 

1  According  to  his  own  diaries,  the  book  was  begun  at  the 
end  of  1693,  ^"^1  finished  in  the  middle  of  1697.  This  inac- 
curacy is  characteristic,  —  palpable,  unimportant.  Anyway,  be- 
fore the  "  Magnalia  '*  was  published,  he  revised  it  and  inserted 
new  matter. 


PRIVATE  LIFE.                                 l6l.  ; 

much  new  matter,  these  books  contain  reprints  of  at  ; 

least  fifteen  volumes  published  separately :  ten  before  \ 

the  end  of  1697,  five  after.      Just  as  these  volumes  -\ 

were  naturally  independent,  so  are  all  the  chapters  in  \ 

the  whole  work.     And  there  is  no  question  that  it  is  1 
full  of  superstitions  now  incredible,  and  of  hasty  errors  / 
of  date  and  the  like. 

For  all  this,  the  "  Magnalia  "  has  merits  which  dispose 
me  to  rate  it  among  the^^reat_works_o£_English_^ 
ture  in  the  Seventeenth  Century.    The  style,  in  the  first 
place,  seems  to  me  remarkably  good.     Any  one  can 

detect  its  faults  at  a  glance :  it  is  prolix,  often  over-  ^ 
loaded  with  pedantic  quotation,  now  and  then  fantastic 
in  its  conceits.     But  these  were  faults  of  Mather's  time. 

And  he  has  t>vo  merits  peculiarly  his  own  ;  in  the  whole  •  \ 

book  I  have  not  found  a  line  that  is  not  perfectly  lucid,  /  , 

nor   many  paragraphs  that,  considering  the   frequent  ; 

dulness  of  his  subject,  I  could  honestly  call  tiresome.  ;' 

In  the  second  place,  admitting  once  for  all  every  charge  \ 

of  inaccurate  detail,  I  am  inclined  to  think  the  veracity  ' 

of  spirit  that  pervades  the  book  of  very  high  order.  .' 

/Somehow,  as  no  one  else  can.  Cotton  Mather  makes  you  ^/ J; 

^  by  and  by  feel  what  the  Pjintap  idpnl  was  :  if  he  does  ■ 
not  tell  just  what  men  were,  he  does  tell  just  what  i 
they  wanted  to  be,  and  what  loyal  posterity  longed  to  ; 
believe  them.  In  the  third  place,  not  even  the  sus- 
tained monotony  of  his  style  and  temper  can  prevent  ; 
one  who  reads  with  care  from  recognizing  the  marked  \ 
individuality  of  his  separate  portraits.  It  was  my  ^ 
conviction  of  this  that  made  me,  in  my  account  of  ; 
his  grandfathers,  tell  their  story  as  nearly  as  might  be 
in  his  own  words.      A  glance   back  at  what  I  have  ; 


1 62  COTTON  MATHER, 

said  about  John  Cotton  and  Richard  Mather  ^  will  show 
as  clearly  as  need  be  the  strength  and  the  weakness 
of  the  *^  Magnalia."  I  have  known  the  book  for  eleven 
years ;  and  the  better  I  know  it,  the  more  I  value  it. 
Whatever  else  Cotton  Mather  may  have  been,  the 
'*  Magnalia  "  alone,  I  think,  proves  him  to  have  been 
a  notable  man  of  letters. 

But  to  return  to  the  diary  for  1697.  A  few  days 
after  his  ecstasy  in  the  empty  church,  he  notes,  as  a 
serious  matter,  a  week's  journey  to  Salem  and  Ipswich. 
I  believe  he  never  went  much  farther  from  home. 
On  the  1 8th  of  September,  he  held  a  fast,  rewarded  by 
assurances  from  Heaven,  *'  in  a  manner  which  I  may 
not  utter."  This  probably  means  that  a  visible  angel 
appeared ;  for  the  next  day  he  writes :  — 

"  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  came  near  unto  mee ;  Doubtless, 
the  angel  of  the  Lord  made  mee  sensible  of  his  Approaches. 
I  was  wondrously  Irradiated.  My  Lord  Jesus  Christ  shall 
yett  be  more  known  in  the  vast  Regions  of  Americaj  and 
by  the  means  of  poor,  vile,  sinful  mee  he  shall  be  so." 
And  Great  Britain  shall  undergo  a  reformation,  and  France 
shall  feel  a  mighty  impression  from  the  hand  of  Christ, 
and  Cotton  Mather  shall  be  concerned  in  these  matters. 
*'  Nor  was  this  all,  that  was  then  told  mee  from  Heaven ; 
but  I  forbear  the  rest." 

His  next  note  shows  a  phase  of  him  rarely  seen  in 
his  diary.  He  was  reputed,  they  say,  good  company  : 
here,  for  once,  he  gives  us  a  bit  of  his  conversation. 
On  the  24th  of  September, 

1  See  pages  7-16.  For  an  admirable  example  of  Mather's  best 
work,  see  his  account  of  the  last  days  of  Theophilus  Eaton, 
Magnalia,  II.  IX.  §§  9,  10. 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  163 

"  Discoursing  with  a  worthy  minister  who  lay  .  .  .  sick, 
I  said  unto  him,  To  praise  Christy  in  the  midst  of  Myriads 
o{  Angels  in  Heaven,  may  in  some  respects  bee  as  good 
as  \o  preach  Christy  in  the  midst  of  Hundreds  of  Mortals 
on  Earth.  Hee  replied,  It's  true.  I  added  (for  our  Dis- 
course was  managed  with  a  certain  serious  and  sacred 
Hilaritie),  But,  Syr,  have  you  .  .  .  thought  what  to  say 
when  you  arrive  among  the  Blessed  Angels  ?  Hee  replied: 
Why,  pray  what  do  you  intend  to  say  f  I  answered,  I  U 
say.  Behold,  o  ye  Holy  Spirits,  the  most  .  .  .  Loathsome 
Sinner  that  ever  arrived  a?nong  you ;  but  it  is  the  Glori- 
ous Christ  that  hath  brought  me  hither.  .  .  .  /  have  as  good 
a  Righteousness  as  any  of  you,  I  *1  say,  Oh  /  you  Illus- 
trious Angels,  if  you  don^t  wonderfully  glorife  the  Grace 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  fetching  so  vile  a  Sinner  into 
these  mansionsyyou  7  never  do  it.'''' 

Just  how  vile  the  man  really  felt  himself  is  hard  to 
tell.  One  thing  is  certain,  however ;  the  fate  that  six 
days  later  befell  his  uncle,  John  Cotton,  minister  of 
Plymouth,  affected  him  very  profoundly.  Sewall  tells 
the  story  ^ :  A  Council  of  ministers  "  advised  th,e 
Church  to  dismiss  [Mr.  Cotton]  with  as  much  Charity 
as  the  Rule  would  admit  of.  .  .  .  This  was  for  his 
Notorious  Breaches  of  the  Seventh  Comandmt."  A 
few  days  later,  Sewall  notes  that  Increase  Mather  "  de- 
clar'd  among  the  Ministers  .  .  .  that  they  had  dealt 
too  favourably  with  Mr.  Cotton."  On  the  9th  of 
October,  and  again  on  the  i6th.  Cotton  Mather,  full  of 
agony  for  his  "  fallen  uncle,"  and  full  of  self-abhor- 
rence and  of  fear  lest  his  own  sins  should  likewise  be 
condemned,  prostrated  himself  before  the  Lord,  and 
enjoyed  assurances  from  Heaven. 

1  Diary,  I.  460.     30  Sept.,  1697. 


1 64    \  COTTON  MATHER. 

The  next  notable  entry  shows  him  in  a  character  as 
yet  new  to  us.  His  daughter  Katharine  was  getting 
old  enough  to  take  life  seriously :  she  was  past  her 
fifth  birthday.  On  November  7th,  a  Lord's  Day,  he 
writes :  — 

**  I  took  my  little  daughter,  Katy^  into  my  Study,  and 
there  I  told  my  child  That  I  am  to  Dy  Shortly  and  Shee 
must,  when  I  am  Dead,  Remember  every  Thing,  that  I  now 
said  unto  her.  I  sett  before  her,  the  sinful  .  .  .  condition 
of  her  Nature,  and  I  charged  her  to  pray  in  secret  places 
every  day,  .  .  .  That  God  for  the  sake  of  Jesus  Christ, 
would  give  her  a  New  Heart.  ...  I  gave  her  to  under- 
stand that  when  I  am  taken  from  her,  shee  must  look  to 
meet  with  more  Humbling  Afflictions,  than  she  does,  now 
she  has  a  .  .  .  Tender  Father  to  provide  for  her.  ...  I 
signified  unto  her.  That  the  people  of  God  would  much  ob- 
serve how  shee  carried  herself,  and  that  I  had  written  a 
Book,  about  Ungodly  Children,  in  the  conclusion  whereof 
I  say,  that  this  Book  will  bee  a  forcible  Witness  against 
my  own  children,  if  any  of  them  should  not  h^^  godly.  At 
Length,  with  many  Tears,  both  on  my  part  and  hers,  I  told 
my  child,  that  God  had  from  Heaven  satisfied  me,  .  .  . 
That  shee  shall  be  brought  Hofne  tuito  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  .  .  .  I  .  .  .  made  ^e  child  kneel  down  by  me ; 
and  I  poured  out  my  cries  unto  the  Lord,  That  Hee  would 
.  .  .  Bless  her,  and  Save  her,  and  make  her  a  Te?nple  of 
His  Glory.  It  will  bee  so!  It  will  bee  so  !  I  write  this, 
the  more  particularly,  that  the  child  may  hereafter  have  the 
X  Benefit  of  Reading  it." 

^^his  curious  note  shows  but  one  side  of  his  domes- 
tic discipline,  however.  And  perhaps  here,  as  well  as 
anywhere,  I  may  mention  his  son  SamuePs  account  of 
how  Cotton  Mather  treated  his  children.^     He  would 

1  S.  Mather,  life,  I.  4.  7. 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  165 

constantly  tell  them  delightful  stories,  especially  at 
table ;  "  and  he  would  ever  conclude  with  some  les- 
sons of  piety.'*  He  would  constantly  "  put  them  upon 
doing  .  .  .  Kindnesses  ...  for  other  Children,"  and 
"  would  applaud  them  when  he  saw  them  delight  in 
it."  As  soon  as  possible,  he  made  them  learn  to  write 
and  copy  "profitable  Things." 

"  He  incessantly  endeavoured,  that  his  Children  might 
betimes  be  acted  by  Principles  of  Reason  and  Honour.  .  .  . 
The  ^rst  Chastisement  he  would  inflict  for  any  ordinary 
Fault,  was  to  let  the  Child  see  and  hear  him  in  an  Aston- 
ishment .  .  .  that  the  Child  could  do  so  base  a  Thing. 
.  .  .  Tohechased  for  a  ivhile  out  of  his  Presence, he  viowXdi 
make  to  be  look'd  upon  as  the  sorest  Punishment  in  his 
Family.  .  .  .  The  Slavish  way  of  Education,  carried  on 
with  Ravins^,  and  Kicking,  and  Scourging,  ...  he  looked 
upon  as  a  dreadful  Judgment  of  God  on  the  World ;  .  .  . 
and  expressed  a  mortal  Aversion  to  it.  .  .  .  He  would  often 
tell  them  of  the  good  Angels,  who  love  them  ;  .  .  .  who 
likewise  take  a  very  diligent  Notice  of  them,  and  ought  not 
in  any  measure  to  be  disobliged.  He  would  not  say  so 
much  to  them  of  the  evil  Angels,  because  he  would  not 
have  them  entertain  any  frightful  Fancies  about  the  Ap- 
paritions of  Devils:  But  yet,  he  would  briefly  let  them 
know,  that  there  are  Devils,  who  tempt  them  to  Wicked- 
ness, who  are  glad  when  they  do  wickedly,  and  who  may 
get  leave  of  God  to  kill  them  for  it." 

And  there  is  every  reason  to  think  that  all  his  chil- 
dren loved  him  dearly. 

But  in  1697,  only  Katy  was  old  enough  for  much 
discipline.  We  must  back  to  the  diary,  in  which  there 
is  little  more  to  concern  us.  The  rest  of  the  notes 
refer   chiefly   to   his    devotions :     he    had    fasts,    and 


l66  COTTON  MATHER. 

thanksgivings,  and  ecstasies.     A  case  of  adultery  in  his 
church  caused  him  special  humiliation.     He  preached 
on  peace,  and  forthwith  ships   arrived   with   news  of  \ 
peace.     A  note  of  Sewall's  on  December  loth  gives 
another  glimpse  of  him  :  —  \ 

"  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  was  at  the  Townhouse  Chamber  ; 
pretty  merry  and  pleasant :  but  was  made  sad  by  Col.  ' 
Hutchinsons  telling  him  of  the  death  of  his  Unkle  Mr.  N.  ; 
Mather.  .  .  .  Visited  the  President  in  the  evening.  He  is  ■ 
sorrowful."  ! 

That  very  day  Cotton  Mather's  Life  of  Phipps  had  : 
come  from  England.  In  January  he  was  laid  up  with  ; 
an  epidemic  influenza.  On  his  first  Sunday  out  he  en-  ; 
joyed  angelic  help  to  such  a  degree  that  he  was  seized  J 
next  day  with  a  "  cholic  "  ;  but  angels  interfered  again,  ; 
and  by  Thursday  he  was  well  enough  to  preach  the  I 
lecture.  The  volume  closes  with  two  closely  written  ; 
pages  of  texts  he  preached  from  during  the  year.       j 

In  this  year  (1697)  he  published  nine  books:  his  j 
Lives  of  Mitchell,  Phipps,  and  Moodey;  three  devo-  : 
tional  works ;  another  book  about  captivity  among  | 
the  Indians ;  a  volume  of  sermons ;  and  a  volume  of  • 
hymns.  \ 

The  next  year,  1698,  was  that  in  which  the  second  ^ 
application  for  Increase  Mather's  agency  was  refused ;  ; 
and  at  the  close  of  which  the  General  Court  renewed  ! 
its  request  that  the  President  remove  to  Cambridge,  \ 
and  the  church  refused  consent.  It  was  the  year,  '• 
too,  when  the  Brattle  Street  Church  was  founded.        : 

The  mottoes  in  the  diary  for  1698  ^  are  the  queerest  ■ 
of  all.  i 

1  In  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  167 

"  Ego  Sic  semper  et  ubique  Vixi/*  runs  the  first,  "  tan- 
quam  ultimam  Diem,  numquam  redituram,  Consumerem.^ 
EuMORP.  C.  M.  Can't  say  so !  "  Then  come  three  other 
Latin  phrases,  with  the  notes,  **  C.  M.  would  say  so  !  " 
Lett  C.  M.  .  .  .  take  the  Caution ! "  and  **C.  M.  heartily 
subscribes  to  This ! " 

The  first  month  of  the  year  shows  him  extremely 
ecstatic.  On  the  4th  of  March,  in  a  secret  fast,  he  put 
his  Church  History  and  another  book  into  the  hands 
of  Christ ;  and  it  was  told  him  from  Heaven 

"  that  they  shall  bee  carried  safe  to  Englandy  and  there 
employed  for  the  Service  of  my  glorious  Lord." — "  The  .  .  . 
Beginning  of  this  month,"  he  goes  on,  "  brought  with  it  lit- 
tle that  was  Remarkable,  besides  multiplied  Experiences  of 
Strange  Dejections  and  sad  Buffet ings  upon  my  mind,  just 
when  I  have  been  going  to  do  some  special  sennce  for  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  my  public  ministry,  and  then  a  more 
than  Assistance  and  Enlargement  in  the  service  itself." 

Later  he  notes  that  a  gentleman  has  remarked  that 
good  men  speak  well  of  Cotton  Mather,  and  bad  men 
ill.     On  the  7th  of  April,  a  lecture  day, 

"The  Lord  having  Helped  me  beyond  my  expectation  in 
preparing  a  Discourse  for  the  Lecture, ^  Hee  yett  more 
gloriously  Helped  mee,  in  uttering  of  it,  unto  a  vast  As- 
sembly of  His  people.  I  first  Laid  my  Sinful  mouth,  in  the 
Dust  on  my  Study-floor  before  the  Lord,  where  I  cast  my- 
self, in  my  supplications  for  His  Assistance  and  Accept- 
ance, as  utterly  unworthy  thereof.  But  the  Lord  made  my 
sinful  mouth  to  become  this  Day,  the  Trumpet  of  His 

1  "  I  have  always  and  everywhere  lived  as  if  each  day  were 
my  very  last." 

2  This  was  the  "  Bostonian  Ebenezer,"  reprinted  as  an  ap- 
pendix to  the  first  book  of  the  "  Magnalia." 


1 68  CO TTON  MA  THER, 

glory ;  and  the  Hearts  of  the  Inhabitants  of  the  Town  were 
strangely  moved  by  what  was  Delivered  among  them." 

Immediately  afterwards  he  fell  ill  of  a  fever,  from 
which  he  recovered  in  a  duly  thankful  mood. 

He  eagerly  renewed  his  prayers  and  fasts.  On  the 
13th  of  May  two  of  his  special  subjects  were  the  Col- 
lege and  the  scandals  in  his  church ;  on  the  20th  his 
particular  subject  was  one  of  his  flock,  to  be  censured 
for  adultery,  —  "  and  one  whom  I  had  formerly,  with 
many  Cries   to  Heaven,  rescued  from  the  Hands  of 

0  Evil  Angels,  which  had  a  Bodily  possession  of  her." 
On  this  occasion  he  humbled  himself  as  a  very  vile 
sinner ;  and  when  the  time  came  for  pronouncing  the 
censure,  he  enjoyed  an  extraordinary  presence  of  the 
Lord.  On  the  29th  comes  a  long  note,  in  which  he 
recapitulates  the  astonishing  verifications  of  some  of 
his  particular  faiths  about  public  affairs,  and  goes  on  to 
assert  his  faith  that  certain  prophesies  point  to  a  speedy 
completion  at  the  end  of  one  hundred  and  eighty  years, 

•  of  the  "Half  Reformation  "  of  151 7  :  "Make  mee  a 
very  Holy,  prayerful,  watchful,  and  prudent  man,"  he 
writes,  "  that  I  may  bee  fitt  for  my  master's  use."  The 
next  note,  written  on  the  loth  of  June,  is  in  Latin :  he 
confesses  to  the  Lord  "  peccatorum  meorum  aggrava- 
tionem"  ;^  he  prays  that  the  blood  of  Christ  may  wash 
him  clean,  and  he  enjoys  an  assurance  that  he  shall 
actually  see  angels  once  more.  The  close  of  the  note 
is  worth  quoting  :  — 

i         "  Latins  haec  scribo,  ne  chara  mea  Conjux,  has  chartas 
aliquando  inspiciens,  intelligat."  ^ 

1  "A  heavy  addition  to  my  sins." 

2  **  I  write  this  in  Latin,  lest  my  dear  wife,  sometime  looking 
over  these  papers,  should  understand  it."  ♦ 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  169 

The  next  note  is  a  very  long  one  about  Calef,  a  man 
*<  who  makes  httle  conscience  of  Lying,"  and  who  is 
attacking  ^IatheIJo^_ll4mblic^As6eftog-4^- suclj^^^ 
as  the  Scripture  has Jaught  us-oibout  the  existefl£S.Jffld 
Influence  of  the  Invisible  World''  This  man*s  book 
was  about  to  be  sent  to  England  for  publication.  Cot- 
ton Mather  prays  that  the  Lord 

"  Forgive  him,  and  do  him  Good  even  as  to  my  own 
Soul."  —  "  But  then/*  he  goes  on,  "  I  could  not  but  cry  unto 
the  Lord  that  Hee  would  Rescue  my  opportunities  of  serv- 
ing my  Lord  Jesus  Christ  from  the  Attempts  of  this  man 
to  damnify  them.  ...  So  I  putt  over  my  Calumnious  Ad- 
versary into  the  Hands  of  the  Righteous  God,  .  .  .  And  I 
now  Beleeve,  That  the  Holy  Angels  of  my  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  whose  operation  this  Impious  man  denies  (which 
is  one  great  cause  of  his  enmity  against  mee !)  will  do  a 
wonderful  Thing  on  this  occasion." 

Immediately  afterwards,  he  remarks  that  pressure  of 
work  has  caused  him  to  give  up  the  practice  of  taking 
notes  as  he  listens  to  sermons :  his  attention  is  conse- 
quently flagging ;  he  must  take  notes  again. 

A  month  of  ecstatic  afilations  and  reactions  followed. 
Towards  the  end  of  July, 

"  my  Mind  Being  .  .  .  Easy,  and  Ready  to  Dy,  I  .  .  .  be- 
sought of  the  Lord,  nevertheless,  that  Hee  would  yett 
spare  my  life,  to  work  for  Him,  a  Little  more,  among  His 
people."  And  one  Lord's  Day  in  August,  he  writes 
thus  :  "  Whereas  one  of  the  Last  Times  I  was  at  the 
Lords-Table^  I  made  my  particular  Application  unto  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  the  way  of  Sacramental  Communion,^ 
to  obtain  from  Him,  the  Cure  of  that  One  Distemper, 
An  Heart  Wandering  with  Impertinent  Thoughts  hi  Re- 
ligious Exercises^  I  must  now  Record  that  I  have  seen  an 
Extraordinary  Success  of  my  Faiths  making  those  Appli- 


1 70  CO  TTON  MA  THER.  ■ 

cations.  On  the  Lords-day  particularly  I  know  not  that; 
one  sentence  passed  mee,  in  all  the  Five  prayers  made  by; 
Father,  or  One  Head  or  Text  of  all  the  Long  Sermon  i 
preached  by  him,  in  the  Forenoon,  but  what  my  Heart  acv 
companied  with  some  Agreeable  Ejaculation.  And  rnyj 
own  Services  in  the  Afternoon  were  under  the  Special! 
Operation  of  Heaven." 

On  the  5th  of  September,  he  went  to  Salem  for  fivcj 
days.  Two  of  his  notes  during  this  considerable  jour- ; 
ney  are  worth  recording.     The  first  is  this  :  —  i 

*'  Finding,  That  whenever  I  go  abroad,  the  curiosity  and= 
vanity  of  the  people  discovers  itself  in  Xhe'w  great  Flocking '^ 
to  hear  me  .  .  .  causes  me  .  .  .  exceedingly  to  Hufnble\ 
myself  before  the  Lord,  and  cry  from  the  Dust  unto  Him, 
that  i\it  fond  expression  of  the  people,  may  not  be  chastised^ 
upon  myself,  in  His  Leaving  of  ?nee  to  any  Inconvenience,  i 
By  this  Method,  I  not  only  am  in  a  Comfortable  Measure) 
kept  from  the  Foolish  Taste  of  popular  Applause  in  myj 
own  Heart,  but  also  from  the  Humbling  Dispensations  from" 
Heaven,  whereto  the  Fondness  of  the  people  might  other- ^ 

wise  Expose  mee."  i 

I 

The  other  is  this  :  —  I 

i 
"  One  Day,  while  I  was   at  Salem,  I  Retired  into  the] 

Burying  place,  and  att  the  Grave  of  my  dear  Youngerj 
Brother  1  there,  I  could  not  but  fall  down  on  my  knees' 
before  the  Lord  ;  with  praises  to  His  Name,  for  grant-: 
ing  the  Life  of  my  dead  Brother  to  be  writt,  and  spread,; 
and  Read  among  His  people,  and  bee  very  serviceable;! 
and  for  sparing  me,  a  barren  wretch,  to  survive  these' 
many  years  upon  the  Earth,  to  Serve  His  people,  iaj 
Several  parts  of  the  World.  I  then  considered,  What^ 
if  I  were  speedily  to  bee  called  away  by  Death,  after' 
my  younger  Brother?     I   found    my   Spirit,   Gloriously! 

i  Nathaniel,  ob.  1688.    Cf.  page  81. 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  171 

Triumphing  in  the  Thought  of  going  by  Death,  to  bee  with 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  among  his  Angels,  But  when 
I  further  Thought  of  Staying  to  Glorify  Him,  in  the  midst 
of  viany  Temptations,  among  his  people  here,  I  did,  at 
present,  because  of  my  Age,  prefer  T/iiSj-  and  Request  it 
of  the  Lord." 

Some  three  weeks  later,  he  went  to  Reading.  On 
the  way, 

"  riding  over  a  Bridge,  one  of  the  Rotten  poles  upon  it 
Broke  :  and  my  Horse  broke  thro'  and  broke  in,  and  sank 
down  his  very  Breast.  I  chose  rather  to  keep  the  Saddle, 
than  go  off  into  the  River;  and  the  Horse,  to  the  Aston- 
ishment of  my  Company  Rose  again  (tearing  off  a  Shooe 
in  his  Rising)  and  Leap'd  over,  with  mee  safe  upon  him. 
How  happily  do  the  creatures  all  serve  us,  while  wee  are 
serving  their  and  our  Lord,  the  Blessed  Jesus." 

In  the  middle  of  October  came  inspiring  news  from 
Medfield.  A  deaf  old  woman  there  had  been  greatly 
stirred  by  reading  a  book  of  Cotton  Mather^s,  and  had 
presently  recovered  her  hearing ;  she  remained  piously 
afraid  "  that  shee  is  not  thankful  enough  unto  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  for  so  great  a  mercy."  The  same  month 
Cotton  Mather  preached  at  the  execution  of  a  young 
woman  for  child-murder.^ 

In  this  October,  too,  Cotton  Mather  took  his  final 
leave  of  his  fallen  uncle,  John  Cotton.  Some  months 
before  Sewall  had  seen  the  disgraced  man  at  Plymouth. 

"March  10,"  ...  he  writes,  "Had  large  discourse  in 
the  even  with  Mrs.  Cotton,  Mr.  Cotton,  Mr.  Rowland.^     I 

1  Sarah  Threeneedles.  Sewall's  account  of  her  is  vivid : 
Diary,  I.  486. 

2  Their  son. 


172  COTTON  MATHER,  ^ 

told  Mr.  Cotton,  a  free  confession  was  the  best  way ;  spake; 
of  Davids  roaring  all  the  day  long  and  bones  waxing  old; 
whilest  he  kept  silence.  .  .  .  When  ready  to  come  away,^ 
March  11.  I  said  his  danger  was  lest  catching  at  shadows,, 
he  should  neglect  the  cords  thrown  out  to  him  by  Christ 
and  so  be  drown*d.  Some  of  my  last  words  to  him  waS; 
Kisse  the  Son,  lest  he  be  angry  !  This  was  in  the  houstf 
between  him  and  me  alone.  Just  as  was  mounting,  He 
desired  me  to  pray  for  him  till  I  heard  he  was  dead."  i 

John  Cotton  was  now  called  to  take  charge  of  a 
church  in  South  Carolina.  He  came  to  take  leave  of 
his  nephew.  They  prayed  together  with  heartfelt  pa- 
thos. And  the  broken  man's  last  words  were  a  solemn 
denial  of  "  the  most  and  worst  of  the  charges  against 
him.'* 

The  remaining  months  of  the  year  passed  amid 
Cotton  Mather's  habitual  ecstasies  and  activity.  In 
November  he  preached  at  the  execution  of  some  mur- 
derers, where  the  assembly  was  so  vast  that  he  had  to 
climb  into  the  pulpit  over  the  heads  of  the  people.  In 
January,  little  Nancy  ^  fell  into  the  fire,  without  per- 
manent injury.  But  her  father  took  the  matter  very 
seriously. 

"  The  fire  that  hath  wounded  the  child,"  he  writes, 
"  hath  added  a  strong  fire  to  the  zeal  of  my  prayer  for  her; 
and  God  has  now  raised  my  prayer  for  her  to  this  degree 
of  a  particular  Faith  in  her  behalf.  If  this  Writing  of  her 
poor  Father  ever  come  to  bee  Readd  by  her,  Lett  her  give 
Thanks  to  God,  that  ever  Hee  cast  her  into  a  Fire  which 
thus  enflamed  the  supplications  of  her  Father  for  her.'* 
He  resolved  that  he  would  be  more  attentive  to  his  family 
duties,  and  finally  determined  to  "  see  whether  there  be 

1  His  daughter  Hannah,  born  early  in  1697. 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  173 

notfiing  further  that  I  may  do,  to  save  the  Children  of 
my  flock  from  falling  into  the  unquenchable  Fire  of  the 
Wrath  of  God." 

About  this  time,  too,  "  a  few  Leisure  minutes  in  the 
evening  of  Every  Day,  in  about  a  Fortnight  or  Three 
weeks  Time,  so  accomplished  me  I  could  write  very 
,  good  Spanish."  So  he  composed  a  body  of  Prot- 
estant religion  for  the  conversion  of  Spanish  America. 
Later  in  the  year  he  fell  ill  again,  and  was  much  de- 
pressed with  fear  of  premature  old  age.  The  record 
closes  with  four  pages  of  texts  from  which  he  has 
preached  in  his  public  ministry  during  the  year. 

In  1698  he  published  six  works:  two  discourses, 
and  a  preface  to  a  third ;  a  history  of  the  Non-Con- 
formists ;  a  devotional  volume ;  and  a  pastoral  letter 
to  English  Captives  in  Barbary. 

The  next  year,  1699,  was  that  in  which  news  came 
that  the  College  charter  of  1697  was  disapproved,  and 
in  which,  under  Bellomont*s  advice,  the  new  charter 
was  dra^vn  that  contained  the  religious  proviso  which 
made  Bellomont  disapprove  it.  It  was  the  year,  too, 
in  which  Coleman  arrived  and  published  his  manifesto, 
and  the  Brattle  Street  Church  was  finally  opened,  and 
the  Mathers  prayed  and  preached  there.  We  have 
iilready  seen  what  Cotton  Mather  wrote  in  his  diary  ^ 
about  these  public  matters.^ 

His  diary  for  1699  ^  shows  his  personal  and  pastoral 
experiences  going  on  just  as  before.  Two  or  three 
notes  are  perhaps  worth  remembering.  He  sent  his 
Spanish  book  to  a  Jew  who  turned  up  in  Boston ;  he 

*  See  pages  140,  142,  143. 

*  In  possession  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society. 


174  COTTON  MATHER,  \ 

translated  some  of  the  Psalms  into  French  verse  ♦  he  ; 
heard  of  bears  on  the  Ipswich  road ;  he  was  much  dis- 
turbed by  an  impostor  named  May,  who  pretended  to  i 
be  a  minister  and  made  trouble,  but  ultimately  ran  ■ 
away,  having  been  detected  in  very  unministerial  over-  | 
tures  to  the  ewes  of  his  flock ;  ^  and  when  in  Cotton  \ 
Mather's  opinion  the  Church  of  England  was  conspir-  ^ 
ing  against  him,  he  sent  the  conspirators  a  message,        ' 

**  That  tho'  I  am  every  way  Little,  yett  I  hope,  thro*  the  i 
Help  of  Christ,  I  may  Live  to  do  for  them  the  same  kind-  : 
ness  that  Sampson  did  for  their  philistine  Brethren,  and  ! 
pull  down  their  Temple  about  their  Ears.**  \ 

But  what  makes  this  year  notable,  besides  its  public  ■ 
history,  is  what  happened  in  his  family.  His  relations  1 
with  his  father  were  growing  more  and  more  intimate 
and  tender ;  at  every  turn  he  sustained  and  comforted  j 
the  worried  old  President ;  he  shared  and  encouraged  | 
his  particular  faith  that  he  should  by  and  by  do  great ; 
works  for  Christ  in  England.  The  other  family  mat-  i 
ters  he  tells  of  I  shall  mention  in  detail. 

Towards  the  end  of  February,  little  Katy's  head- ; 
dress  caught  fire,  and  the  child  was  severely  burned.  . 
As  she  lay  in  a  fever,  her  father  was  assured  that  this  ' 

"  Blessed  Affliction  .  .  .  shall  prove  the  salvation  of  my  , 
child.    It  shall  bee  so !    It  shall  bee  so  !    Lord,  How  much 
ought  I  to  Love  Thee,  when  Thou  dost  Rebuke  and  Chas-  \ 
ten  me.^'*  \ 

The  same  day  Mrs.  Mather's  mother  died.  \ 

"  I  count  it  a  Singular  Favour  of  God  unto  mee,**  writes  ' 
Cotton  Mather,  "  (and  it  might  bee  so  unto  her!)  that  tho'  i 

1  The  curious  may  find  a  pretty  full  account  of  May  in  the  ■ 
Magnalia,  VII.  VI.  §  9. 


PR IV ATE  LIFE.  i75 

shee  was  Delirious  the  First  Night  of  her  Illness,  yett 
shee  had  the  Free  Use  of  Reason  all  the  Rest  of  the  Lit- 
tle Time :  and  hereby  I  enjoyed  an  opportunity  for  Two 
Dayes  together,  to  Talk  with  her,  and  pray  with  her,  and 
Do  all  that  it  was  possible  for  mee  to  Do,  in  assisting  her, 
about  the  Great  Acts  of  Resigning  her  Spirit  unto  the 
Lord.  She  was  a  pious  Woman,  and  one  full  of  prayers 
and  Alms;  and  tho'  shee  were  of  a  very  Fearful  Temper^ 
and  was  particularly  in  her  Life-Time  under  some  Slavish 
Fear  of  Deaths  yett  as  her  Death  approached,  shee  com- 
fortably gott  over  it." 

In  June,  little  Nancy  fell  ill.  Reading  in  the  Book 
of  Job,  her  father  broke  off  to  pray  that,  like  Job,  he 
might  retain  three  daughters. 

**  I  purposed,"  he  writes,  "  that  I  would  grow  yett  more 
Fruitful  in  my  Conversation  with  my  Little  Birds,  and  Feed 
them  with  more  frequent  and  charming  Lessons  of  Re- 
ligion." And  he  resolved  to  start  schools,  to  make  more 
pastoral  visits,  to  give  away  more  copies  of  his  book  about 
a  **  Family  Well-Ordered,''  to  write  a  book  for  the  Indians. 
**  Lord,  pitty  mee,"  he  begs,  **  Assist  mee,  Accept  mee!  '* 

The  child  did  not  mend  ;  but  his  Bible,  opening  by 
chance  at  Mark  lo.  13-16,^  assured  him  that  she  should 
live.  Then  he  prayed  for  her  again,  and  had  fresh  as- 
surances, and  she  grew  better ;  and,  as  we  have  seen,^ 
he  took  this  for  an  omen  of  good  concerning  his  par- 
ticular faith  about  the  College. 

This  particular  faith,  we  may  remember,  was  accom- 
panied by  an  assurance  that  his  son  should  glorify  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  after  he  himself  had  followed  his 

1  "  Suffer  the  little  children  to  come  unto  me,"  etc. 
^  See  page  140. 


176  CO  TTON  MA  TITER,  \ 

father  into  the  kmgdom  of  God.  At  the  moment  he  - 
had  no  son ;  he  had  had  none  but  the  malformed  child  '\ 
whose  fate  he  attributed  to  witchcraft.^  But  his  wife  \ 
was  again  near  her  time,  and  on  the  8th  of  July  showed  j 
symptoms  of  travail ;  so  he  made  a  fast  to  obtain  mercy  j 
for  his  family  and  his  ministry.  j 

"  In  the  Evening  of  this  Day,"  he  goes  on,  "near  eleven  ! 
o'clock  my  Consort  fell  into  her  Travail.  Just  before  this,  \ 
the  Text  with  a  meditation  whereon  I  chose  to  entertain  ■ 
my  Family  at  our  evening-prayers  was  that  in  Joh.  i6.  21.  ; 
A  woman  when  shee  is  in  Travail  hath  sorrow,  because  her  ; 
Hour  is  Come  ;  but  as  soon  as  shee  is  delivered  of  the  ' 
Child,  shee  Remembreth  no  more  the  Anguish,  for  Joy  \ 
that  a  Man  is  born  into  the  World.  After  I  had  com-  ! 
mended  my  Consort  unto  the  Lord,  I  Laid  mee  down  to  , 
sleep,  after  midnight,  that  I  might  be  fit  for  the  Services  of  j 
the  Day  Ensuinor.  But  after  one  a  clock  in  the  morning  I  \ 
awoke,  with  a  concern  upon  my  Spirit,  which  obliged  mee  ; 
to  Rise,  and  Retire  into  my  Study.  Tliere  I  cast  myself  I 
on  my  knees  before  the  Lord,  confessing  my  Sins  that  ren-  i 
dered  mee  unwortiiy  of  His  Mercy,  but  imploring  His  \ 
Mercy  to  my  Consort,  in  the  Distress  now  upon  her.  While  ! 
my  Faith  was  pleading  that  the  Saviour  who  was  Born  ■ 
of  woman  would  send  His  good  Angel  to  Releeve  my  j 
Consort,  the  people  ran  to  my  Study-Door,  with  Tidings  ! 
That  a  Son  was  Born  7inio  mee.  I  continued  then  on  my 
knees,  praising  the  Lord ;  and  I  received  a  wonderful  Ad-  \ 
vice  from  Heaven,  That  this  my  Son,  shall  bee  a  Servant  ; 
of  my  Lord  Jesus  Christ  throughout  eternal  Ages.  Hee  , 
was  Born  about  three  Quarters  of  an  Hour  past  One,  in  the  ' 
morning  of  the  (Lords-Day)  9d.  5m.2 — an  Hearty,  and  ^ 
Lusty,  and  comely  Infant.  ...  In  the  Afternoon,  I  Bap-  \ 
tised  my  Son,  and  in  Honour  to  my  Parent,  I  called  him,  | 

1  See  page  116.  2  j^jy  ^^  1699.  ' 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  177 

Increase.  After  which,  Retiring  to  my  Study,  it  was 
again  assured  mee  from  Heaven,  That  this  Child  shall  jj;lo- 
rify  my  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  bee  with  Him,  to  Behold 
His  Glory." 

In  October  came  sad  news  from  Carolina.  The 
plague  had  broken  out  in  Charleston,  and  poor  Uncle 
John  Cotton  had  been  stricken  down  at  the  beginning 
of  his  pastoral  work  there.  In  the  diary  is  a  brief 
note  about  hira.  But  the  letter  which  Cotton  Mather 
wrote  the  same  day  to  his  uncle's  faithful  widow,  who 
had  been  waiting  at  Plymouth  for  a  chance  to  rejoin 
her  husband,  is  more  touching.  I  will  quote  a  little 
from  that,  then. 

"  In  their  confusion,  they  tell  us  not  the  precise  Time 
of  his  Death  ;  nor  do  they  relate  any  Circumstances  of  it, 
only  that  hee  lay  sick  Two  Days,  and  hee  Dy'd  the  Third, 
which  is  the  period,  wherein  the  sick  of  that  pestilential 
Distemper  use  to  dy.  That  circumstance  will  make  you 
think  of  Lazarus^  and  you'l  join  with  mee  in  hopes  That 
my  uncle  was  one  whom  the  Lord  loved,  I  need  not  say 
unto  you,  how  near  the  Death  of  so  beloved  a  Friend  goes 
to  the  Hearts  of  his  Relatives,  .  .  .  and  in  a  special  man- 
ner to  mine.  I  had  not  many  Friends  on  Earth  like  him. 
But  in  the  midst  of  our  sorrowes,  .  .  .  wee  have  a  peculiar 
satisfaction  in  the  Lord's  accepting  my  uncle  to  Dy  with 
Honour  in  the  service  of  the  Gospel  and  kingdom.  — As  it 
was  no  great  mercy  (I  beleeve)  unto  Plymouth,  for  their 
Laborious,  and  good-spirited,  and  well-tempered  Pastor  to 
be  driven  from  them,  so  it  was  a  great  Mercy  unto  my  uncle 
to  bee  employed  in  gathering  a  church  for  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  in  a  Countrey  that  had  never  seen  such  a  Thing, 
from  the  Beginning  of  the  world."  ^ 

^  Mather  Papers,  403.  To  Mrs.  Joanna  Cotton,  23  October, 
1699. 

12 


1 78  COTTON  MA TIIER. 

In  this  year,  1699,  Cotton  Mather  published  nine 
separate  works  :  a  history  of  the  Indian  wars ;  a  state- 
ment of  the  orthodox  faith  of  New  England;  the 
"  Family  Well-Ordered  "  ;  his  Spanish  book,  of  which 
part  was  reprinted  separately ;  an  account  of  religious 
impostors ;  a  book  for  sailors ;  and  a  book  called  the 
*' Serious  Christian."  He  also  edited  a  collection  of 
Cases  of  Conscience,  made  at  a  meeting  of  ministers 
at  Cambridge. 

The  next  year,  1700,  as  we  have  seen,  was  very 
troublous.  Increase  Mather,  disappointed  of  his 
agency,  deceived  in  his  particular  faith,  was  finally 
forced  to  Cambridge;  the  Brattle  Street  controversy 
broke  out  again,  and  waxed  fierce ;  and  Calefs  book 
arrived.  What  Cotton  Mather  wrote  about  these 
matters  we  have  read  already.^ 

The  other  notes  in  the  diary  for  1700^  show  few 
new  traits.  His  children  were  ill :  little  Increase  had 
a  terrible  time  with  convulsions;  Nibby's  head-dress 
caught  fire,  as  Katy's  had  the  year  before ;  and  Nancy 
had  a  serious  disorder.  In  the  course  of  the  year  his 
ninth  child,  and  third  son,  Samuel,  was  born. 

A  few  of  his  notes,  however,  are  worth  remembering. 
In  April, 

"  A  Gentleman  came  to  mee  with  a  Desire  that  I  would 
write  a  Sheet  upon  the  horrid  Evils  of  Debauching  the 
Indians  by  Selling  Drink  unto  them:  a  crime  committed 
by  too  many  in  the  country ;  a  crime  fruitful  in  wickedness 
and  confusion.'* 

So  he  wrote  the  book  :  it  would  do  good,  he  thought. 
A  little  later,  on  a  lecture  day,  he  writes  of 

1  See  pages  145-151. 

2  In  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  1 79 

"  Torturing  pains  in  my  Head,  which  have  diverse  days 
molested  mee ;  (such  as  I  have  so  often  found  praeludious 
unto  my  doing  some  special  service  for  my  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  that  I  cannot  but  have  particular  Thoughts  about 
the  Original  of  them.)  "  In  spite  of  them  he  prepared 
his  lecture.  **  And  now,  When  I  came  to  my  public  Ser- 
vices, I  felt  a  Wonderful  Force  from  Heaven,  Strengthen- 
ing, and  Assisting,  and  Enlarging  of  mee.  .  .  .  The  Vast 
Assembly,  which  was  come  together,  saw  That  the  Lord 
was  with  mee  of  a  Truth  —  Now,  o  my  Soul,  Feed,  Feed 
upon  these  Experiences." 

In  June  he  held  a  special  fast. 

"  I  this  day  putt  up  my  Church  History,"  he  writes, 
**  and  pen  down  directions  about  the  publishing  of  it.  It 
.  .  .  has  lain  by  me,  diverse  years,  for  want  of  a  fit  oppor- 
tunity to  send  it.  A  Gentleman,  just  now  sailing  for  Eng- 
land, undertakes  the  Care  of  it;  .  .  .  and  by  his  Hand  I 
send  it  for  London.  O  my  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  lett  thy 
good  Angels  accompany  it." 

In  October,  he  had  doubts  whether  his  habit  of 
giving  away  good  books  was  not  too  expensive ;  and 
indeed  his  son  Samuel  says  ^  that  he  sometimes  gave 
away  a  thousand  volumes  a  year.  But  he  rebuked  his 
doubts,  and  looking  for  a  sign  soon  found  one  :  calling, 
for  "pure  religion,"  on  a  widowed  gentlewoman,  he 
was  offered  as  many  books  as  he  chose  to  take  from 
the  late  President  Chauncy's  library;  he  took  about 
forty,  which  raised  his  own  library  to  something  near 
three  thousand  volumes.  It  was  a  sore  trial  to  him  a 
little  later,  though,  when  Calef 's  book  arrived,  and  his 
own  Church  History  had  not  even  gone  to  press.     A 

1  Life,  II.  I.  i6. 


1 8o  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

number  of  pious  friends  joined  him  in  more  than  one 
day  of  prayer  about  this. 

Another  note  of  this  year  has  a  charm  of  its  own. 

"  There  was  an  old  man,"  it  runs,  "  (called  Ferdinando 
Turyl)  scarce  known  to  me.  ...  On  a  Saturday  night 
[28d.  7m.]  I  was  very  strongly  accosted  in  my  sleep,  with 
a  Dream,  of  this  importance.  That  this  old  man  was 
brought  Into  my  Sight  and  that  it  was  (I  know  not  how) 
said  unto  me,  Take  Notice  of  this  Old  Man,  .  .  .  Speak  to 
hi7n.  Do  for  him.  On  the  Day  following,  I  saw  the  Old 
Man,  at  our  public  sermons,  very  attentive:  (where  I 
suppose  he  had  rarely  attended.)  On  the  Day  after  this, 
I  mett  the  Old  Man  in  the  Street,  and  I  Lett  fall  some  such 
words  as  these  unto  him  :  How  d'ye  do^  Old  Man.  I  am 
glad  to  see  y  071  still  in  this  Wo  fid :  I  pray  God^  prepare 
you  for  another;  I  suppose  it  won't  be  long  before  you  are 
called  away  :  Can  I  do  you  no  service  f  And  so  I  turned 
from  him.  On  the  Day  after  that  the  old  man  came  to  me 
at  my  House:  and  I  then  Instructed  him,  how  to  prepare 
for  Death :  and  I  gave  him  a  Little  Book  (of  Grace  Tri- 
umphant) further  to  assist  him  in  it:  Adding  a  peece  of 
money  to  Encourage  him.  Afterwards  he  came  to  me 
several  times  :  but  in  about  seven  weeks,  after  our  first 
Interview,  he  Dyed  suddenly.  Going  to  his  Funeral,  I 
was  told  (from  some  who  did  not  understand  how  much  I 
had  been  concerned  for  him)  and  afterwards  .  .  .  from 
people  of  the  House  where  the  old  man  Lived,  That  he  had 
been  a  poor  Carnal  Sorry.old  man  until  near  seven  weeks, 
before  he  dyed :  but  in  his  Last  Six  or  Seven  Weeks,  they 
had  observed  a  Wonderful  Change  upon  him  :  he  spent  his 
whole  Time  in  praying  and  Reading,  and  the  Little  Book 
(of  Grace  Triumphant')  was  his  continual  companion 
Day  and  Night.  They  never  saw  a  man  so  altered ;  and 
they  are  verily  persuaded  he  dyed  a  Regenerate  Man.  — 
Truly  I  have  several  Times  observed  That  God  hath 
strangely  stirred  up  my  Heart  sometimes  to  visit  persons. 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  l8l 

that  were  Strangers  to  me,  and  employ  my  particular 
methods,  to  excite  and  assist  their  giving  themselves  to 
Him.  .  .  .  And  they  have  presently  after  dyed  with  great 
symptoms  of  Regeneration  upon  them." 

On  the  1 8th  of  January,  Cotton  Mather  mentioned 
to  his  wife  and  his  father  a  matter  that  troubled  him 
deeply.  In  spite  of  many  prayers,  he  could  not  feel 
a  faith  that  his  baby  Samuel  would  serve  the  Lord 
in  his  churches.  So,  though  the  child  was  "  lusty  and 
heavy,"  he  feared  it  would  die  in  infancy.  On  the 
7th  of  February  comes  this  note ;  — 

"  The  Evil  that  I  feared  is  come  upon  me.  On  Tuesday 
night  this  week,  my  little  son  Samuel,  was  taken  with  very 
sad  Convulsions.  They  continued  all  Wednesday  incura- 
ble, and  we  were  all  that  day  in  continual  expectation  of 
his  expiration.  But  he  lived  all  Thursday ,  too,* and  out- 
lived more  than  a  hundred  very  terrible  Fitts.  The  Con- 
vulsions of  my  own  mind,  were  all  the  while,  happily 
composed  and  quieted;  and  with  much  Composure  of 
Mind,  I  often  and  often  in  prayer  Resigned  the  Child  unto 
the  Lord.  Preaching  the  lecture,  on  Thursday^  while  we 
were  every  minute  Looking  for  the  Death  of  the  Child,  I 
chose  to  insist  on  that  Joh.  19.  25.,  /  know^  that  my  Re^ 
deemer  Lives;  as  a  matter  of  satisfaction  to  us,  at  the  Sight 
of  our  Dying  Friends.  On  Thursday,  about  midnight,  an 
odd  thing  fell  out.  The  child,  coming  out  of  One  of  its 
worst  Fitts  most  unaccountably  fell  a  Laughing,  and  this 
held  for  diverse  minutes;  unto  the  amazement  of  the  Spec- 
tators, who  indeed  were  so  amazed,  that  they  could  hardly 
keep  from  Swooning.  After  This,  it  had  no  more  such 
Fitts  as  before;  but  Lingered  along,  till  about  ten  a' clock 
this  morning,  when  one  of  its  fitts  carried  it  off.'* 

Cotton  Mather  preached  as  usual  on  Sunday,  the 
9th.  On  Monday,  the  child  was  buried.  Its  epitaph 
was,  "  Not  as  they  that  have  no  Hope." 


l82  COTTON  MATHER, 

The  last  note  in  the  volume  tells  how  friends  have 
insisted  on  publishing  a  vindication  of  the  Mathers 
from  the  attack  of  Calef,  —  a  "  laudable  example  of  a 
people  appearing  to  vindicate  their  injured  pastors 
when  a  storm  of  persecution  is  raised  against  them." 
There  are  six  pages,  too,  of  an  address  to  an  assem- 
bly of  ministers  concerning  an  "  offensive  book  about 
Churches  "  ;  and  four  pages  of  notes  of  texts  preached 
from.  On  the  back  cover  is  a  memorandum  through 
which  a  pen  has  been  very  lightly  drawn :  — 

"  Ab  Amico  Satis  Adulatore  ^ 
ON  Cotton  Mather. 

"For  Grace  and  Art  and  an  Illustrious  Fame 
Who  would  not  look  from  such  an  Ominous  Name  ? 
Where  Two  Great  IVames  their  Sanctuary  take, 
And  in  a  77/ /r^  combined,  a  Greater  make. 
"  Too  Gross  flattery  for  me  to  transcribe ;  (tho'  the  po- 
etry be  good.)  " 

In  1 700,  Cotton  Mather  published  eighteen  distinct 
works :  five  devotional  books ;  three  sermons ;  four 
monitory  letters,  including  that  about  selling  drink  to 
Indians  and  one  to  Indians  themselves  in  their  own 
tongue;  a  pamphlet  against  balls  and  dances;  an  ex- 
posure of  religious  impostors ;  two  books  for  young  peo- 
ple and  children ;  a  Defence  of  Evangelical  Churches ; 
and  another  statement  of  the  old  Principles  of  New 
England. 

1  "  By  a  sufficiently  flattering  friend."  —  This  verse  is  a  pal- 
pable imitation  of  Dryden's  lines  on  Milton  : 

"  Three  poets  in  three  distant  ages  born,"  etc. 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  183 

The  next  year,  1701,  was  that  in  which  Bellomont 
died,  and  Stoughton ;  in  which  Willard  was  made  Vice 
President  of  the  College,  and  in  which,  amid  all  the 
heat  of  the  Brattle  Street  controversy  and  Calefs 
attack.  Increase  Mather  was  excluded  from  the  pres- 
idency. 

It  is  notable  that  Cotton  Mather's  diary  contains 
very  little  about  these  terribly  grave  matters.  In  fact, 
as  I  have  read  his  diaries,  nothing  has  impressed  me 
more  than  his  rpy;nli]tg  {ibstinence  frorp.^yil  speaking. 
He  had_a  hot  temper  and  a  quick  tongue.  But  he_did 
his,  best  i>Qt  to  leave  bejnnd  him'^vmUen  records  that 
should  defameany  man.     It  would  be  hard,  I  think,  to 


find  another  diary  so  long  and  so  free  from  scandal. 
To  get  a  clear  notion  of  how  he  really  felt  at  this  mo- 
ment, then,  we  must  turn  to  Sewall  again. 

In  the  last  chapter,  I  cited  two  of  Sewall's  notes.^ 
Here  are  a  few  more :  — 

"  Oct.  20.  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  .  .  .  went  and  told  Sam,^ 
That  one  pleaded  much  for  Negroes,*  and  he  had  used 
his  father  worse  than  a  Negro,  and  told  him  that  was  his 
Father.  I  had  read  in  the  morn  Mr.  Dod's  saying;  Sanc- 
tified Afflictions  are  good  Promotions.  I  found  it  now  a 
cordial.  And  this  caus'd  me  the  rather  to  set  under  my 
Father  and  Mother's  Epitaph,  —  Psal.  27.  10.**  It  may  be 
U  would  be  arrogance  for  me  to  think  that  I,  as  one  of 
Christ's  Witnesses,  am  slain,  or  ly  dead  in  the  street.  — 
October  22.  1 701.  I  .  .  .  speak  with  Mr.  Cotton  Mather 
at  Mr.  Wilkins's.     I  expostulated  with  him  from  I  Tim. 

1  See  page  153.  2  Sewall's  son. 

8  Sewall  had  published  a  tract  against  slavery. 
*  "  When  my  father  and  my  mother  forsake   me,  then   the 
Lord  will  take  me  up." 


1 84  CO  TTON  MA  THER, 

5.  I.  Rebuke  not  an  elder.  He  said  he  had  considered 
that:  I  told  him  of  his  book  of  the  Law  of  Kindness  for 
the  Tongue,  whether  this  were  correspondent  with  that. 
Whether  correspondent  with  Christ's  Rule :  He  said,  hav- 
ing spoken  to  me  before  there  was  no  need  to  speak  to  me 
again;  and  so  justified  his  reviling  me  behind  my  back. 
Charged  the  Council  with  Lying,  Hypocrisy,  Tricks,  and  I 
know  not  what  all.  I  ask'd  him  if  it  were  done  with  that 
Meekness  as  it  should :  answer'd,  yes.  Charg'd  the  Coun- 
cil in  general,  and  then  shewM  my  share,  which  was  my 
speech  in  Council :  viz.  If  Mr.  Mather  should  goe  to  Cam- 
bridge again  to  reside  there  with  a  Resolution  not  to  read 
the  Scriptures,  and  expound  in  the  Hall:  I  fear  the  exam- 
ple of  it  will  do  more  hurt  than  his  going  thither  will  doe 
good.  This  speech  I  owned.  Said  Mr.  Corwin  at  Read- 
ing, upbraided  him,  saying,  This  is  the  man  you  dedicat 
your  books  to !  I  ask'd  him  If  I  should  supose  he  had 
done  something  amiss  in  his  Church  as  an  Officer ;  whether 
it  would  be  well  for  me  to  exclaim  against  him  in  the  street 
for  it.  (Mr.  Wilkin  would  fain  have  had  him  gon  into  the 
iiier  room,  but  he  would  not.)  I  told  him  I  conceived  he 
had  done  much  unbecoming  a  Minister  of  the  Gospel,  and 
being  call'd  .  .  .  to  the  Council,  .  .  .  I  went  thither.  .  .  . 
2  Tim.  2.  24.  25.I  — Sign'd  Mr.  Mather's  order  for  £2^, 
Hamer'd  out  an  Order  for  a  Day  of  Thanksgiving.— 
Oct.  23.  Mr.  Increase  Mather  said  at  Mr.  Wilkins's,  If  I 
am  a  Servant  of  Jesus  Christ,  some  great  Judgment  will 
fall  on  Capt.  Sewall,  or  his  family.  —  Oct.  24.  Rainy  day. 
...  I  got  Mr.  Moody  to  copy  out  my  Speech,  and  gave 
it  to  Mr.  Wilkins  that  all  might  see  what  was  the  ground 
of  Mr.  Mather's  Anger.  .  .  .  Mr.  Wilkins  carried  [it]  to 
Mr.  Mathers  ;  They  seem  to  grow  calm." 

1  "And  the  servant  of  the  Lord  must  not  strive ;  but  be  gen- 
tle unto  all  men,  apt  to  teach,  patient ;  in  meekness  instructing 
those  that  oppose  themselves;  if  God  peradventure  will  give 
them  repentance  to  the  acknowledging  of  the  truth." 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  185 

On  the  30th  of  November,  Sewall  writes :  — 

"  I  spent  this  Sabbath  at  Mr.  Coleman's  [church],  partly 
out  of  dislike  to  Mr  Josiah  Willard's  cutting  off  his  Hair, 
and  wearing  a  Wigg:  .  .  .  Partly  to  give  an  example  of 
my  holding  Comunion  with  that  Church  who  renounce  the 
Cross  in  Baptisme,  Humane  Holy  days  etc.  as  other  New- 
english  Churches  doe.  And  I  had  spent  a  Sabbath  at  the 
Old  Church,  and  at  Mr.  Mathers."* 

In  Sewali's  Letter-Book  we  find  how  the  quarrel 
ended.  On  December  31,  1701,  he  wrote  to  Cotton 
Mather  thus :  — 

*•  Sir,  —  I  once  intended  an  Answer  to  yours  of  the  30th 
of  Octobr.  last,  principally  as  to  some  matters  of  fact  there- 
in recited.  But  since  you  were  pleased  to  sit  with  me  last 
Tuesday  was  fortnight,  and  to  honour  my  Pue,  with  pub- 
lishing there  the  very  acceptable  News  of  Liberty  again 
granted  to  our  dear  Brethren  of  the  Palatinat,  I  do  now 
Remise,  Release  and  forever  quit  claim,  as  to  any  personal 
Controversy  we  were  lately  managing  at  Mr.  Wilkins's.  It 
has  been  my  thought  ever  since,  and  the  consideration  of 
this  being  the  last  day  of  the  year,  suffers  me  to  delay  it 
no  longer.  And  at  the  same  time  I  assure  you  that  I  am 
your  truly  loving  friend  and  humble  Servant  S.  S." 

In  Sewall's  Letter-Book  for  this  year  is  one  other 
document  worth  remembering.  On  October  6th,  he 
and  Isaac  Addington  wrote  a  long  letter  of  advice  to 
the  gentlemen  who  were  about  to  start  a  new  college 

1  The  Old  Church  was  the  First ;  Mr.  Mather's,  the  Second ; 
Mr.  Willard's,  the  Old  South,  the  Third;  Mr.  Colman's,  the 
Brattle  Street,  the  Fourth.  There  were  as  yet  no  other  Congre- 
gational churches  in  Boston ;  and  Sewall  was  doing  his  best  to 
make  the  brethren  dwell  together  in  unity. — And  concerning 
Wiliard's  wig,  cf.  pages  34,  80. 


1 86  COTTON  MATHER,  \ 

\ 
in  Connecticut.  They  enclosed  hints  for  an  act  of 
incorporation ;  and  went  on, 

"  We  should  be  very  glad  to  hear  of  flourishing  Schools^ 
and  College  at  Conecticut,  and  it  would  be  some  relief  to. 
us  against  the  Sorrow  we  have  conceived  for  the  decay! 
of  them  in  this  Province."  | 

Sewall  and  the  Mathers  agreed  in  feeling  that  Har-; 
vard  was  lost  to  orthodoxy ;  and  no  three  men  hailed; 
with  more  prayerful  enthusiasm  the  rising  star  of  Yale.; 

Cotton  Mather's  diary  for  1701  i  shows  the  general- 
condition  of  his  activity,  his  enthusiasm,  and  his  affec-j 
tions  unchanged.  In  the  beginning  of  the  year,  he  was; 
much  excited  by  Calef 's  book.  i 

"  One  Vile  Tool,"  he  writes  on  the  5th  of  April,  **  namely; 
R.  Calef,^  .  .  .  employed  by  [the  Enemies  of  the  Churches]  1 
to  go  on  with  his  Filthy  Scribbles  to  hurt  my  precious' 
opportunities  of  glorifying  my  Lord  Jesus  Christ," — dis-: 
poses  him  to  special  fast  and  prayer.  And  on  the  iith,| 
"  because  I  would  bespeak  the  Lord  thrice ^'^  he  summoned! 
six  friends,  for  the  third  time,  to  pray  with  him  that  *'  the' 
Lord  would  send  his  Angel  to  stop  the  Adversary  in  thcj 
Course  of  his  Wickedness  [Which  the  Lord  will  do !]  "       ' 

The  other  matter  which  seems  most  on  his  mind  isi 
his  Church  History,  concerning  which  his  prayers  audi 
assurances  were  frequent  throughout  the  year.  Oni 
the  13th  of  June  came  a  letter  from  Mr.  BroomfieldJ 
in  London :  Mr.  Robert  Hackshaw  had  agreed  to  i 
print  the  book  at  his  own  expense.  \ 

1  In  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  ; 

2  This  opprobrious  mention  of  a  name,  a  very  rare  thing  ini 
Cotton  Mather's  diary,  indicates  his  overwrought  condition.! 
Cf.  pages  105,  150. 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  187 

"  I  told  him,"  wrote  Mr.  Broomfield,  "  Syr,  God  has 
answered  Mr.  Mather's  prayers.  —  He  declared  he  did  it 
not  with  any  expectation  of  Gain  to  himself,  but  for  the 
Glory  of  God,  and  that  he  might  be  a  means  to  midwife  so 
good  a  work  into  the  World.  And  did  you  know  him  so 
well  as  I  do  you  would  believe  him." 

But  in  September  came  news  of  some  complications 
about  the  printing:  on  the  27th,  Cotton  Mather  held 
a  special  fast  for  the  History,  being  also  moved  to  sup- 
plications by  the  fact  that  his  father-in-law,  after  the 
orthodox  manner  of  New  England,  was  already  "  upon 
a  second  marriage."  Among  his  other  memoranda  for 
the  year,  the  most  notable  seems  to  be  that  he  had 
started  thirteen  or  fourteen  "  private  meetings."  He 
believed  in  organizing  the  work  of  the  Lord  :  through- 
out his  life  he  was  getting  together  prayer- meetings, 
and  societies  for  the  suppression  of  disorders ;  working 
with  the  commissioners  to  convert  and  civilize  the  In- 
dians ;  and  so  on. 

I  find  but  four  notes  in  1701  which  are  worth  re- 
membering in  detail.  In  September  came  news  that 
a  friend  had  been  killed  in  the  wars.  Cotton  Mather 
immediately  went  to  pray  with  the  widow ;  and  found 
with  her  another  widow,  her  sister. 

"  Now  in  my  prayer,"  he  goes  on,  "  I  found  myself 
strangely  diverted  from  the  Condition  of  the  person  to 
whom  only  I  intended  my  Visit.  I  was  as  it  were  com- 
pelled so  to  word  my  prayer  as  take  in  all  along  the  con- 
dition of  her  Sister  ;  even  as  if  my  prayer  had  been  cheefly, 
if  not  only,  for  her.  I  wondered  a  little  at  my  frame  in  this 
matter.  But  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  knew  what  I  did  not 
know.  Within  Two  Days  there  arrived  Intelligence  that 
the  young  man,  the  husband  of  the  supposed  widow  to 
whom  1  gave  my  visit,  was  yett  living." 


l88  COTTON  MATHER,  \ 

On  the  3d  of  October,  he  held  a  thanksgiving  foij 
his  health,  for  the  defeats  of  the  "subtil  and  raging 
malice  "  of  his  enemies,  for  the  safety  and  prospects 
of  his  Church  History,  and  for  his  opportunities  to  da 

good  by  preaching  and  printing.  \ 

\ 

I 

**  But  there  was  another  signal  article,''  he  goes  on,  *'  cf 
my  praises  to  the  Lord  on  this  day.  And  this  was  the: 
Confluence  of  Blessings,  which  I  enjoy  in  my  dearest  Con-; 
sort,  who  bore  me  company  in  some  of  the  duties  of  the; 
day.  Her  piety,  the  agreeable  charms  of  her  person,  her' 
obliging  Deportment  unto  me,  her  discretion  in  ordering^ 
my  and  her  Affairs  and  avoiding  everything  that  might  be- 
dishonourable  to  either  of  us,  and  the  lovely  offspring  that! 
I  have  received  by  her,  and  her  being  spared  unto  me  for-; 
more  than  fifteen  years  :  These  are  things  that  I  shouldl 
thankfully  acknowledge  before  the  Lord.*'  , 

\ 

At  the  end  of  the  year  come  two  notes  without  date*! 
The  first  concerns  the  Church  History,  which  he  had: 

prayed  for  time  and  again.  J 

I 

**  All  that  I  have  to  add,"  he  writes,  "  is  That  when  I  am 
committing  my  Church  History(which  great  work  runs  great ; 
hazard  of  miscarrying)  into  the  hands  of  the  Lord  Jesus  ■ 
Christ,  I  receive  wonderful  Assurances  (I  think,  I  know)  ; 
from  Heaven  That  the  Lord  will  accept  it,  and  preserve  it,  ! 
and  publish  it,  and  that  it  shall  not  be  lost.  An  Heavenly  \ 
Afflatus  causes  me  sometimes  to  fall  into  Tears  of  Joy,  : 
assured  that  the  Lord  has  heard  my  supplications  about ' 
the  matter.  And  now,  its  having  been  thus  long  delayed,  ^ 
and  obstructed  and  Clogg'd,  proves  but  an  opportunity  for  j 
that  prayer  and  Faith,  which  if  I  had  gone  without,  the  j 
publication  of  that  book  would  not  have  proved  near  so  j 
sweet  a  mercy  to  me.  But  if  it  should  miscarry  after  all,  I 
O  my  God,  what  confusion  would  ensue  upon  me  !  '* 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  189 

The  second  of  the  undated  entries  is  a  copy  of  part  of  . 
a  printed  letter,  expounding  from  personal  experience  a 
passage  of  Baxter,  to  the  effect  that  whoever  has  a  special 
virtue  will  probably  be  defamed  for  the  contrary  vice. 

"  It  has  in  some  former  years  commonly  happened  unto 
me,"  he  writes,  "  That  when  I  visited,  in  the  way  of  my 
pastoral  Dttty^  persons  possessed  with  Evil  Spirits,  the 
persons,  tho*  they  knew  every  one  else  in  the  room,  yett, 
thro'  the  unaccountable  operation  of  the  Evil  Spirits  upon 
their  Eyes,  I  must  appear  so  Dirty,  so  ugly,  so  Disguised 
unto  them,  that  they  could  have  no  knowledge  of  me.  I 
have  a  thousand  times  thought.  That  the  Lord  ordered 
This  for  some  Intimation  unto  me.  That  when  Times  0/ 
Temptation  come,  wherein  Evil  Spirits  have  so  much 
operation  on  the  Minds  of  my  people,  as  they  have  on  the 
eyes  of  Energumens,  a  Minister  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
that  will  be  faithful  unto  his  Interests,  must  Look  to  be  all 
over  Disguised  by  Misrepresentation  unto  the  Minds  of 
them  that  are  under  the  power  of  Temptation.^* 

On  the  cover  of  the  volume  are  these  lines  :  — 

"A  Good  Note  in  a  Little  Book  entituled  A  Spiritual 
Legacy.  Pray  for  those  you  Love,  And  assure  yourselves 
you  shall  never  have  comfort  of  his  Friendship  for  whom 
you  pray  not." 

It  is  a  very  curious  fact,  that  the  diary  for  this  most 
troublous  of  years  shows,  on  the  whole,  more  spiritual 
calm  than  any  of  the  preceding.    Mather  seems  to  have  y 
realized  this  himself.     On  the  6  th  of  December,  he  was 
afraid  lest  he  "fall  into  Security." 

In  1 701  he  published  nine  works:   four  volumes  of 
sermons ;  a  poem  addressed  to  an  old  gentlewoman     / 
afflicted  with  blindness ;  a  preface  to  his  friends'  an- 
swer to  Calef ;  a  book  on  the  Greek  Churches ;  a  book 


1 90  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

on  the  Wonders  of  Christianity ;  and  a  book  concern- 
ing which  he  writes  as  follows  :  — 

"  Many  (it  may  be,  more  than  seven)  years  ago,  a  Book- 
seller going  from  hence  to  Loiidon^  carried  certain  Manu- 
scripts of  mine  with  him,  declaring  his  Intentions  to  publish 
them.  He  carelessly  left  them  in  the  Hands  of  ...  a 
Bookseller  there ;  who  sometime  after  dyed  ;  and  I  could 
never  hear  what  became  of  my  Manuscripts.  ...  A  friend 
of  mine  going  the  last  Summer  for  London,  did  ...  En- 
quire after  my  Manuscripts  ;  and  strangely  recovering  of 
them,  he  carried  them  to  another  Bookseller,  who  pub- 
lished them.  .  .  .  The  Book,  which  has  had  such  a  Resur- 
rection from  the  Dead^  has  this  Tide,  Death  Made  Easy 
AND  Happy."  ^ 

The  year  1702  brought  to  Boston  Joseph  Dudley, 
the  new  Governor.  As  we  have  seen,  it  is  believed  that 
a  letter  of  Cotton  Mather*s  urging  his  popularity  in 
Massachusetts  —  a  popularity  which  there  is  reason  to 
fear  that  Mather  either  invented  or  imagined  —  had 
much  to  do  with  his  appointment.^  Son  of  the  old 
Puritan  Governor,  Thomas  Dudley,  Joseph  Dudley  had 
from  the  first  appearance  of  Randolph  in  Massachusetts 
been  a  pronounced  Royalist.  He  had  been  President 
of  the  provisional  government  which  held  power  until 
Andros  arrived.  Under  Andros  he  had  held  high  of- 
fice ;  and  with  him  he  had  been  overthrown  and  sent  to 
England  for  trial  by  the  Revolution  of  1689.  Since  that 
time  he  had  been  virtually  an  exile,  but  had  enjoyed 
several  honors.  As  Chief  Justice  of  New  York  he  had 
hanged  Leisler,  the  leader  there  of  such  a  revolu- 
tion as  had  driven  Dudley  from  Massachusetts.     As 

1  Sibley,  Harvard  Graduates,  IH.  76. 

2  See  page  130. 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  19 1 

Lieutenant  Governor  of  the  Isle  of  Wight,  and  later  as 
a  member  of  Parliament,  he  had  been  high  in  royal 
favour.  And  now,  as  the  official  representative  of 
Queen  Anne,  —  for  William  of  Orange  died  in  March, 
1702,  —  he  returned  triumphantly  to  Massachusetts. 
This  final  triumph  he  perhaps  owed  to  the  influence  of 
the  Mathers,  whose  crushing  defeats  were  probably  not 
appreciated  in  England.  They  believed  that  he  would 
be  grateful,  that  with  his  help  something  might  still  be 
done  to  preserve  the  system  of  the  fathers.  On  June 
nth,  the  day  he  arrived,  there  was  a  grand  official 
banquet  at  the  Town-house,  and  "Mr.  Mather  crav'd  a 
blessing  and  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  Returned  Thanks."  ^ 

But  Cotton  Mather's  diary  for  1702  *  tells  little  of  all 
this ;  and  much  of  matters  that  came  nearer  to  him. 
"  Prophesia  quae  dicit  aliquid  tale  futurum  impletur  per 
aliquid  tale,"  ^  is  its  motto.     His  first  entry  is  this  :  — 

"  Thursday.  On  a  Thursday  just  Thirty-Nine  years  ago, 
I  first  appeared  in  the  World.  I  cannot  express  either  my 
Amazements  at  the  Goodness  and  Mercy  of  God,  in  sparing 
me  thus  far  beyond  my  expectation  to  enter  upon  the  For- 
tieth year  of  My  Age:  (methinks,  Forty  sounds  Old  and 
Big !)  or  my  Distresses  in  Reflecting  upon  my  Sinful  and 
foolish  misspend  of  my  Irrevocable  Time.  (Alas  how  little, 
how  nothing  have  I  done  in  all  this  Time  !)  I  considered 
these  things  a  little  this  Day,  in  my  Supplications  before 
the  Lord.  But  more  on  the  Day  following,  which  was 
with  me  a  Day  of  prayer,  (albeit  I  did  three  Dayes  ago 
keep  a  Day  of  Thanksgiving  in  my  Study.)  " 

^  Sewairs  Diary,  II.  59. 

2  In  the  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 
'  "  A  prophecy  that  some  such  thing  shall  be  is  fulfilled  by 
some  such  thing." 


192  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

He  notes  then  how  he  had  started  a  society  for  the  j 
Suppression  of  Disorders,  and  another  for  the  Propaga-  I 
tion  of  the  Christian  Rehgion.  On  the  14th  of  March  • 
he  held  his  first  recorded  vigil :  all  the  rest  of  his  life  \ 
he  held  these  night-watches  of  prayer  and  fasting,  as  ^ 
well  as  those  he  kept  by  day.  And  the  same  month  ; 
he  began  the  practice  of  reading  Scotch  commentators  \ 
to  his  family  at  evening  prayers.  The  first  he  took  up  j 
was  Hutchinson  on  Job.  ; 

"  And  many  times  after  I  had  begun,"  he  writes,  **  I  | 
had  this  Darted  into  my  mind  ;  That  I  might  expect  some  ■ 
Trials  (perhaps  of  Long  Sickness)  to  come  shortly  upon  1 
my  Family  ;  and  that  the  Lessons  fetch'd  from  the  Study  1 
of  Job  were  to  prepare  me  for  those  Trials."  i 

The  rest  of  his  notes  until  the  25  th  of  May  record  ^ 
only  such  ecstasies,  vigils,  activities,  as  by  this  time  ' 
we  know  well.  On  that  day  his  consort  miscanied,  , 
at  four  or  five  months.  He  thought  it  his  duty  to  <! 
humble  himself  before  the  Lord ;  but  the  dispensation  ] 
remained  mysterious,  for  \ 

**  when  I  more  particularly  examined,  whether  I  had  ever  | 
troubled  the  Churches  of  the  Lord  with  any  False  Con-  \ 


ception^  I  could  not  find  myself  conscious  to  any  such 
matter." 

For  seven  months  there  are  few  notes  in  the  diary 
which  concern  anything  but  his  domestic  affairs. 
What  few  there  are  indicate  that  all  the  while  his  busy 
work  went  on  unchecked.  And  besides  the  "  Magna- 
lia,"  which  was  published  this  year,  he  gave  no  less 
than  eleven  books  to  the  press  in  the  course  of  1702. 
But  what  concerns  us  now  is  what  went  on  at  his 
home. 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  193 

His  wife  grew  worse.  On  the  3d  of  June,  holding  a 
special  fast  for  her,  he  had  a  "  sad  experiment.  ...  I 
can't  Beleeve  what  I  will  or  when  I  will."  A  dulness 
was  on  his  spirit ;  impure  thoughts  assailed  him ;  he 
feared  she  was  about  to  die.  His  distress  increased 
for  three  days.     Then,  on  the  6th, 

"  in  the  Forenoon,  while  I  was  at  prayer  with  my  Dying 
Wife,  in  her  Chamber,  ...  I  began  to  feel  the  blessed 
breezes  of  a  particular  Faith,  blowing  from  Heaven  upon 
my  mind.  ...  In  the  Afternoon,  when  I  was  alone  in  my 
Study,  crying  unto  the  Lord,  .  .  .  my  particular  Faith  yi2i,s 
again  Renewed,  and  with  a  Flood  of  Tears,  I  thought  I 
received  an  assurance  from  Heaven,  That  she  should  Re- 
cover. Whereupon  I  begg'd  of  the  Lord,  That  He  would 
by  His  Good  Spirit  incline  me  to  be  exemplarily  wise,  and 
chast,  and  Holy,  in  my  whole  Conversation,  when  I  should 
again  obtain  such  favour  of  the  Lord,  as  to  have  my  Good 
Thing  with  me,  in  former  Circumstances." 

Next  day,  for  all  this,  she  grew  worse ;  her  physi- 
cian was  called  out  of  church  to  attend  her;  and 
Mather  "  was  called  up,  in  the  middle  of  the  following 
Night,  because  they  thought  her  Dying."  At  one  or 
two  in  the  morning  he  retired  to  his  study,  where  the 
Lord  renewed  "  assurances  of  His  purpose  to  Recover 
her."  She  lingered  on.  In  a  special  fast  for  her  on 
the  4th  of  July,  he  prayed  too  for  the  town,  where 
small-pox  had  broken  out;  for  the  land,  where  war 
had  been  proclaimed;^  and  for  '* other  sad  circum- 
stances we  have  in  our  government."^  On  the  12th, 
he  held  his  seventh  fast  for  her :  — 

1  "  Malbrook  s'en  va-t-en  guerre,"  etc. 
a  See  Chapter  X. 

13 


1 94  CO  TTON  MA  THER.  | 

"  On  which  Day  I  also  made  Seven  several  Addresses  for  j 

her,  wherein  I  resigned  her  unto  tlie  Lord,  and  submitted  : 

unto  all  the  sorrowful  Consequences  of  a  Rejected  prayer,  ' 

and  a  Defeated  Faith,  and  a  desolate  broken  Family,  if  He  . 

should  order  them  for  me.     But  while  I  thus  gave  up  my  j 

dear  consort,  still  I  could  not  give  her  overP  ■ 

And  his  particular  faith  was  renewed.     On  the  21st,  ; 
as  she  was  still  terribly  ill, 

"  I  chose  ...  to  Spread  my  Distress  before  the  Lord,  \ 

in  the  way  of  a  Vigil.     I  Retired  into  my  Bed-Chamber,  i 

and  spent  good  part  of  the  Night,  prostrate  on  the  Floor  \ 

(with  so  Little  of  Garment  on,  as  to  render  my  lying  there  ■ 

painful  to  my  Tender  Bones)  crying  to  God  for  the  Life  ; 
of  my  poor  Consort.  ...  I  think,  before  I  went  unto  my 

Rest,  I  obtained  some  further  satisfaction  that  my  God  has  \ 

heard  me."  ' 

On  the  I  St  of  August,  she  was  a  little  better  :  — 

**  And  yett,  after  This,  .  .  .  her  Feebleness  grows  again  • 

to  that  extremity,  as  to  render  her  condition,  as  dubious  j 

perhaps  as  ever.     I  am  kept  up  all  Night  that  I  may  see  ] 
her  Dy,  and  therewith  see  the  Terrible  Death  of  my  prayer 

and  Faith.     But  in  this  Extremity,  when  I  renew  my  Vis-  -, 

its  unto  Heaven,  ...  a  strange  Irradiation  comes  from  \ 
Heaven  upon  my  Spirit  that  her  Life  shall  not  as  yett  come 

unto   an  End.  —  My  Heavenly  Father  will  still  have  me  \ 

attended  with  some  special  Exercise,  that  shall  keep  my  \ 

prayer  and  Faith  employed.     And  that  which  His  Fatherly  \ 

Wisdome  has  ordered  for  me,  in  these  later  weeks,  has  been  \ 

the  singular  Calamity  of  my  poor  Consort :  and  an  Illness  1 

which  none  of  tlie  ablest  physicians  know,  what  to  Judge  j 

of,  or  what  to  do  for."  ; 

On  the   29th,  reflecting  that  his  consort  had  been  \ 

'' strangely  upheld,  and   tho'  chaste?i'd  sore^  yett  not  • 

given  over  to  Death,  for  twice  seven  weeks  together,"  ^ 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  195 

he  determined  to  hold  a  thanksgiving :  it  might  be,  he 
thought,  that  "  a  Day  of  praise,  would  be  followed  with 
salvations,  beyond  what  any  Dayes  of  prayer  had  yett 
obtained."  But  though  she  mended  a  Uttle  hereupon, 
it  was  only  a  little. 

So  in  September  he  writes  : 

"  I  suspect,  I  have  been  too  unattentive  unto  the  meaning 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  and  His  Angel,  in  XhQ  particular  Faith, 
which  I  have  had  about  my  Consort's  being  Restored  unto 
me.  .  .  .  When  she  has  been  Several  Times  on  or  near 
the  Last  Agonies  of  Death,  ...  I  cry  to  the  Lord,  that 
He  will  yett  spare  her.  He  tells  me,  That  He  will  do  it. 
Accordingly,  to  our  Astonishment,  .  .  .  she  stayes  yett 
longer  with  us.  .  .  .  But  it  may  be,  after  the  Lord  has 
given  me  admirable  Demonstrations,  of  His  being  Lothe  to 
Deny  me  anything  that  I  importunately  ask  of  him,  and 
therefore  does  one  Month  after  another  Delay  the  Thing 
which  I  fear ;  yett  I  must  at  Last  Encounter  the  Death 
which  I  have  so  deprecated,  when  both  my  wife  and  my- 
self shall  be  better  prepared  for  it." 

On  the  2  2d  of  October,  matters  still  unchanged,  he 
held  a  vigil,  at  the  close  of  which  he  writes  :  — 

"  I  took  my  psalm-book  into  my  hand  that  I  might  sing 
something  for  the  Quickening  of  my  uneasy  Mind.  And 
unto  my  Surprize,  the  very  first  Verse,  that  at  the  opening  of 
the  Bookj  my  Eye  was  carried  unto  was  that :  Psal.  105.  37. 

And  there  was  not  among  the  Tribes 
A  Feeble.person  (old. 

Lord,  I  thought !  —  This  won't  be  fulfilled  until  the  Resur- 
rection of  the  Dead.  The  Tribes  of  the  Raised  will  not 
h2i.w^  on^  Feeble  person  2imong  them.  And  must  I  resign 
the  condition  of  my  Consort  at  last  unto  what  shall  be  done 
m  the  future  state  ?     Lord,  Thy  Will  be  Done>'' 


196  COTTON  MATHER,  \ 

The  next  night  his  wife  had  a  vision.  A  grave  per-i 
son  appeared  to  her,  —  "  she  supposes,  in  her  sleep,"  — ^ 
leading  a  woman  in  such  "  meagre  and  wretched  cir-; 
cumstances  "  that  Mrs.  Mather  was  presently  stirred  to] 
praise  God  that  **  her  condition  was  not  yett  so  miser-, 
ably  circumstanced."  The  grave  person  proceeded  to; 
suggest  remedies  that  had  not  occurred  to  the  doctors ; ; 
the  doctors  approved  the  suggestions ;  and  Mrs.  Matherj 
grew  better,  1 

**  Insomuch  that  she  came  twice  on  Saturday  out  of  her 
Sick  Chamber,  unto  me  in  my  Study ;  and  there  she  asked j 
me  to  give  Thanks  unto  God  with  her,  and  for  her,  on  the; 
Account  of  the  Recovery  in  so  surprising  a  Degree  begun; 
unto  her.  —  After  this,  my  dear  Consort  continued  muchi 
Refreshed,  and  yett  Feeble.  We  had  Great  Hopes  of  herj 
becoming  a  Strong  person  again;  and  yett  great  Fears,] 
Lest  some  further  •Latent  mischief  within  her,  prove  after! 
all  too  hard  for  her.''  •        ' 

On  the  30th  of  October  comes  this  note  :  —  \ 

"Yesterday,  I  first  saw  my  Church  History,  since  the  ! 
publication  of  it.  A  Gentleman  arrived  here  from  New^  \ 
castle,  in  Engla?id,  that  had  bought  it  there.  Wherefore,  I ; 
sett  apart  this  Day,  for  solemn  Thanksgiving  unto  God, : 
for  His  Watchful  and  gracious  providence  over  that  Work  ; 
and  for  the  Harvest  of  so  many  prayers,  and  cares,  and  j 
Tears,  and  Resignations,  as  I  had  employed  upon  it.  My  - 
Religious  Friend,  Mr.  Broomjield,  who  had  been  singularly  ■ 
helpful  to  me  in  the  publication  of  that  great  Book  (of  ' 
Twenty  shillings  price,  at  Lo?idon)  came  to  me,  at  the  j 
Close  of  the  Day,  to  join  with  me,  in  some  of  my  praises  i 
to  God.  —  On  this  Day  my  litde  daughter  Nibby  began  to  j 
fall  sick  of  the  small-pox.  The  dreadful  Disease,  which  is  . 
raging  in  the  Neighbourhood,  is  now  gott  into  my  Family.  ; 
God  prepare  me,  God  prepare  me,  for  what  is  coming  upon  i 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  197 

me.    The  child  is  favourably  visited,  in  comparison  of 
what  many  are." 

The  pestilence  increased  through  November.  So  did 
the  fer\^ency  of  Cotton  Mather's  prayers.  Late  in  the 
month,  he  writes  :  — 

**  Humiliations  are  coming  thick  upon  me  !  My  Study, 
is  tho'  a  Large,  yett  a  Warm  Chamber,  (the  hangings 
whereof,  are  Boxes  with  between  two  and  three  thousand 
Books  in  them,)  and  we  are  so  circumstanced,  that  my 
House,  tho*  none  of  the  smallest,  cannot  afford  a  safe  Hos- 
pital now  for  my  Sick  Folks,  anywhere  so  well  as  there. 
So  I  Resigned  my  Study,  for  an  Hospital  to  my  little 
Folks,  that  are  falling  sick  of  a  Loathsome  Disease." 

The  first  patient  there  was  his  "  godly  maid " ; 
Nancy  came  down  on  the  24th ;  httle  Increase  on 
the  29th. 

"The  Little  Creatures,"  he  writes,  "keep  calling  for  me 
so  often  to  pray  with  them  that  I  c:in  scarce  do  it  less  than 
ten  or  a  dozen  times  in  a  day  ;  besides  what  I  do  with  my 
Neighbours." 

Two  days  later, 

"  At  last,  the  Black  Day  arrives.  ...  I  had  never  yett 
seen  such  a  Black  Day,  in  all  the  Time  of  my  Pilgrimage. 
The  Desire  of  my  Eyes  is  this  Day  to  be  taken  from  me. 
.  .  .  All  the  Forenoon,  .  .  .  she  lies  in  the  pangs  of 
Death  ;  sensible  until  the  last  minute  or  two  before  her 
final  expiration.  I  Cannot  Remember  the  Discourses  that 
passed  between  us.  Only,  her  Devout  Soul  was  full  of 
Satisfaction,  about  her  going  to  a  State  of  Blessedness, 
with  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  as  far  as  my  Distress 
would  permitt  me,  I  studied  how  to  confirm  her  satisfaction 
and  consolation.  This  I  Remember,  That  a  little  while 
before  she  died,  I  asked  her  to  tell  me  Faithfully,  what 


198  COTTON  MATHER, 

Fault  she  had  seen  in  my  Conversation,  that  she  would 
advise  me  to  rectify.  She  replied,  (which  I  wondred  at,) 
That  she  knew  of  none,  but  that  God  had  made  what  she 
had  observed  in  my  Conversation,  exceedingly  serviceable 
unto  her,  to  bring  her  much  nearer  to  Himself.  When 
I  saw  to  what  a  point  of  Resignation  I  was  now  called  of 
the  Lord,  I  Resolved,  with  His  Help  therein  to  glorify 
Him.  So,  Two  Hours  before  my  Lovely  Consort  Expired, 
I  kneeled  by  her  Bed-Side,  and  I  took  into  my  two  Hands, 
a  dear  Hand,  the  dearest  in  the  World.  With  her  thus  in 
my  Hands,  I  solemnly  and  sincerely  gave  her  up  unto  the 
Lord:  and  in  token  of  my  Real  Resignation,  I  gently 
putt  her  out  of  my  Hands,  and  Laid  away  a  most  Lovely 
Hand,  Resolving  That  I  would  never  touch  it  any  more. 
This  was  the  Hardest,  and  perhaps,  the  bravest  Action, 
that  ever  I  did.  She  afterwards  told  me,  That  she  sigti'd 
and  sear  d  ?ny  Act  of  Resignation,  And  thd' before  that, 
she  call'd  for  me,  continually,  she  after  this  never  asked 
for  me  any  more.  She  continued  until  near  two  a  clock  in 
the  Afternoon,  And  the  last  Sensible  Word  that  she  Spoke, 
was  to  her  weeping  Father,  Heaven^  Heaven^  will  fnake 
amends  for  all.  When  she  was  expired,  I  immediately 
prayed  with  her  Father,  and  the  other  weeping  people  in 
the  chamber,  for  the  grace  to  carry  it  well  under  the  pres- 
ent Calamity,  and  I  did  Consummate  my  Resignation,  in 
terms  as  full  of  glory  to  the  wisdome  and  Goodness  and 
Alsufficiency  of  the  Lord,  as  I  could  utter.  She  Lived 
with  me  just  as  many  years,  as  she  had  Lived  in  the  World, 
before  she  came  to  me,  with  an  Addition  of  the  seven 
months,  wherein  her  Dying  Languishments  were  preparing 
me  to  part  with  her.'' 


Cotton    Mather's    Private    Life.  —  His    Second 

Marriage.  —  Charter  of  Harvard  College. 

—  Quarrel  with  Joseph  Dudley. 

1 702-1 707. 

Before  proceeding  with  Cotton  Mather's  private  life, 
we  may  best  glance  at  the  history  of  Massachusetts  and 
of  Harvard  College  for  the  next  five  years ;  and  first, 
perhaps,  glance  back  at  Cotton  Mather's  account  of  his 
first  interview  with  Governor  Dudley. 

On  the  last  page  of  his  diary  for  1 702  is  this  memo- 
randum :  — 

"June  16.  I  received  a  Visit  from  Govtrnour  Dudley. 
Among  other  things  ...  I  said  to  him,  ...  *  Syr,  you 
arrive  to  the  Government  of  a  people,  that  have  their 
various  and  their  Divided  Apprehensions,  .  .  .  particularly 
about  your  own  Government  over  them.  I  am  humbly  of 
opinion,  That  it  will  be  your  Wisdom  to  carry  an  Indiffer- 
ent Hand  towards  all  parties.  ...  I  would  approve  it .  .  . 
if  any  one  should  say  to  Your  Excellency  :  By  no  means 
lett  any  people  have  cause  to  say,  That  you  take  all  your 
measures  from  the  Two  Mr.  Mathers.  By  the  same  Rule, 
I  may  say  without  offence :  By  no  means  lett  any  people 
say^  That y 071  go  by  no  ?neasures  in  your  conduct  but  Mr. 
Byfield's  and  Mr.  Leveretfs.  This  I  speak  not  from  any 
personal  prejudice  against  the  Gentlemen,  but  from  a  due 
consideration  of  the  Disposition  of  the  people  ;  and  as 
a  service  to  your  Excellency.'      The  Wretch  went  unto 


200  COTTON  MATHER, 

those  men,  and  told  them,  that  I  had  advised  him  to  be  no 
ways   advised  by  them  :   and  inflamed  them  into  an  im-  , 
placable  Rage  against  me.''  j 

For  some  years  Mather  maintained  friendly  relations  j 
with  the  "  wretch  "  in  question ;  but  they  were  strain-  { 
ing  more  and  more.  The  verdict  of  posterity  is  that  \ 
from  beginning  to  end  Joseph  Dudley  was  a  self-seeker,  j 
Such  verdicts,  of  course,  are  to  be  taken  with  caution ;  j 
and  in  estimating  this  one  it  is  but  fair  to  remember  ; 
that  Dudley  was  the  first  of  the  native  Tories,  and  that  \ 
New  England  tradition  has  never  done  the  native  Loyal-  i 
ists  justice.  At  the  same  time,  I  have  found  little  to  ' 
show  that  in  this  particular  case  posterity  has  erred,  j 
At  home  and  abroad  Dudley's  whole  training  had  been  - 
that  of  a  gentleman, — an  aristocrat.  In  his  eleven  ; 
years  of  exile  he  had  been  in  constant  contact  with  in-  \ 
triguing,  self-seeking  courtiers.  How  foreign  his  tem-  \ 
per  was  to  that  of  the  compatriots  he  came  to  govern  ^ 
appears  most  vividly  in  a  misadventure  which  befell  ; 
him  in  December,  1705.^  ; 

"  Dec.  7,"  writes  Sewall,  **  Went  to  Brooklin.  .  .  .  After  ] 
Diner  met  the  Govr.  upon  the  Plain;  .  .  .  told  me  of  what  ' 
haj3ened  on  the  road,  being  in  a  great  passion  :  threaten'd 
to  send  those  that  affronted  him  to  England." 

What  had  happened  on  the  road  was  this.  Driving  : 
in  his  travelling  chariot,  Governor  Dudley  found  his  way  '■ 
stopped  by  two  carts  loaded  with  wood.  He  ordered  \ 
the  carters  to  move  aside.  They  declined,  one  of  them  '' 
saying,  **  I  am  as  good  flesh  and  blood  as  you ;  .  .  .   ; 

1  See  Sewall's  Diary,  II.  144,  j^<7.,  and  note.  Meantime  Sewall's  \ 
son  had  married  Dudley's  daughter.  \ 


JOSEPH  DUDLEY,  201 

you  may  goe  out  of  the  way."  The  Governor  drew 
his  sword  on  the  man,  who  snatched  it  and  broke  it, 
declaring  that  he  acted  in  defence  of  his  life.  "You 
lie,  you  dog ;  you  lie,  you  devill !  "  cried  Dudley.  — 
"Such  words  don't  become  a  Christian,'*  said  the 
carter.  —  "A  Christian,  you  dog  !  "  cried  Dudley.  "  A 
Christian,  you  devill !  I  was  a  Christian  before  you 
were  born."  And  snatching  the  carter's  whip  he 
lashed  him.  Then  he  had  both  carters  arrested, 
and  apparently  tried  to  make  their  conduct  appear 
treasonable.  The  case  hung  on  until  the  following 
November,  when  the  Superior  Court  discharged  the 
prisoners.  This  was  the  Governor  that  the  Mathers 
had  fondly  hoped  to  manage. 

The  temper  Dudley  thus  showed  in  private  appears, 
more  decorously,  in  his  public  conduct.  Palfrey^  tells 
in  detail  the  story  of  his  relations  with  the  legislature, 
and  of  the  wars  which  harassed  the  frontiers.  It  was 
during  these  wars  that  Deerfield  was  sacked,  Cotton 
Mather's  cousin  Mrs.  VV^illiams  killed,  and  her  husband 
and  family  carried  off  by  French  and  Indians.  And 
before  1707,  the  people  of  Massachusetts  had  generally 
come  to  believe  that  Dudley's  administration  was  cor- 
rupt ;  and  that  he  was  personally  interested  in  illicit 
trade  with  the  enemy. 

Harvard  College  meanwhile  proceeded  under  the  pro- 
visional government  of  Vice-President  Willard.  From 
the  time  of  President  Mather's  dismissal  Cotton  Mather 
never  attended  a  meeting  of  the  Corporation.  On  the 
loth  of  August,  1703,  he  was  reckoned  to  have  abdi- 
cated ;  and  Mr.  Brattle  elected  in  his  place.^  As  a 
1  Book  IV.  Chapters  VIII.-X.  «  Quincy,  I.  151. 


202                            COTTON  MATHER,  \ 

minister  of   Boston,    he    remained   an  Overseer ;    but  \ 

apparently  attended   only  one   other   meeting  of  the  \ 

board.     Willard  and  Dudley  had  married  sisters,  —  a  • 
fact  which   might  well  have  had  influence  on  such  a 

temper  as  the  Governor's.     Whatever  the  reason,  no  j 

steps  were  taken   for  a  new  charter  during  Willard's  i 
administration  beyond  two  mentions  of  the  subject  in 

the  Governor's  messages :  one  in    1 703,  the  other  in  ] 

1705.^  \ 

So  we  come  back  to  Cotton  Mather's  diary.     It  was  ; 

on  Tuesday,   December   i,   1702,  that  his  wife  died.  I 

On  Saturday  she  had  been  buried ;  and  we  find  him  j 

holding  a  day  of  prayer  and  fasting,  j 

"That  I  may  obtain  the  pardon  of  all  the  sins  for  which  j 

the  Lord  is  now  chastening  me  ;  and  Grace  and  Help  from  ; 
Heaven  to  glorify  the  Lord  with  a  wise  Behaviour,  under 

the  Temptations   of   the  Condition   which   is   now   come  ; 

upon  me."  j 

Next  day  he  preached  on  the  death  of  the  prophet  ^ 

Ezekiel's  wife ;  and  he  notes  that  in  many  ways  the  | 

people  showed  their  love  to  him,  —  among  other  tokens  i 

of  affection  subscribing  to  build  Mrs.  Mather  a  costly  \ 

tomb.     A  little  later,  the  pestilence  began  to  abate  ;  i 

the  children  grew   better,  and   escaped    scarlet -fever,  • 

which  was  also   abroad.     Cotton  Mather  himself   re-  \ 

mained  well.      His  godly  maid  recovered,   too ;    but  j 

so  *^  distracted  "  that  she  had  to  go.  I 

His  next  note  is  very  long  and  curious.     The  seven  j 
months'  strain  has  brought  reaction.     With  a  good  deal  i 
of  deliberation,  he  proceeds  to  consider  the  **  Dispensa- 
tions of  Heaven,  that  have  been  Rolling  over"  him.  i 
1  Quincy,  Vol.  I.  Chapter  VIII. 


HIS  SECOXD  MARRIAGE,  203 

"  Has  not  the  Death  of  my  Consort,"  he  asks,  "  that  most 
astonishing  Sting  in  it :  A  miscarriage  of  a  particular  Faith  f 
Truly,  Nothing  has  ever  yet  befallen  me,  that  has  come  so 
near  it.  But  "—  he  finds  reassuring  thoughts.  In  the  first 
place,  ft  was  compassionate  in  God  to  remove  her  ;  she 
could  never  have  grown  strong  enough  to  perform  her 
conjugal  and  maternal  duties.  **  More  than  all  this.  She 
was  a  Gentlewoman  of  a  Melancholy  Temperament;  and 
there  were  come  dreadful  changes  in  her.  Father's  Family. 
He  had  extremely  broken  her  Spirit  by  bringing  home  a 
mother-in-law.  .  .  .  Her  youngest  Brother,  and  a  consider- 
able Interest  of  mine  with  him,  (some  hundreds  of  pounds 
perhaps)  was  newly  fallen  into  the  Hands  of  the  French 
Enemy.  Her  Second  Brother,  who  was  her  Darling,  .  .  . 
was  dead  in  London.  .  .  .  Her  Eldest  Brother  proves  an 
Idle,  profane.  Drunken,  and  sottish  Fellow,  and  a  Disgrace 
to  all  his  Relatives.  .  .  .  The  sight  of  these  Things,  would 
without  a  miracle,  have  brought  such  a  Disorder  of  Mind 
upon  her,  as  would  have  rendered  my  Condition  Insup- 
portable. And  now,  who  can  tell,  what  way  may  be  made 
for  Blessings  unto  me,  and  mine,  by  her  Translation  to  the 
Heavenly  World?  *'  In  the  second  place,  she  herself  had 
prayed  that  she  might  never  live  to  hear  of  the  death  of  her 
favorite  brother  ;  and  this  prayer  was  granted.  In  the  third 
place,  within  a  fortnight  after  her  death  he  had  preached  on 
John  4.  47,^  from  which  he  had  expounded  the  doctrine  that 
"Tho*  Faith  be  no  Folly,  yelt  Faith  may  be  mixed  with 
F^olly  ;  and  particularly  with  the  Folly  of  Limiting  the  Wis- 
dome  of  God,  unto  our  own  way  of  answering  it.^^  And  a 
gentlewoman,  who  heard  the  sermon,  had  been  so  moved 
as  to  address  him  thereupon  in  verses,  ending  — 

"  Your  whole  Discourse  is  Swol'n  with  its  own  praise, 
But  this  fair  Article,  does  wear  the  Bales." 

^  *'  When  he  heard  that  Jesus  was  come  out  of  Judea  into  Gali- 
lee, he  went  unto  him,  and  besought  him  that  he  would  come 
down,  and  heal  his  son  :  for  he  was  at  the  point  of  death.'* 


204  COTTON  MATHER^  -  • 

*'  It  may  be/*  he  writes  at  last,  **The  Lord  will  ere  lon^  '■ 
Enable  me,  to  penetrate  further  into  the  Nature,  meaning,  i 
and  mystery  of  ?i  particular  Faith,  However,  I  have  mett  \ 
with  enough  to  awaken  in  me  a  more  exquisite  Caution,  ' 
than  ever  I  had  in  my  Life,  concerning  it.*' 

In  January,  Nancy  was  very  ill :  but  when  her  life  was  \ 
despaired  of,  his  prayers  recovered  her.  The  only  other  ! 
note  I  have  recorded  for  this  month  runs  thus :  —  ! 

"  Before  the  late  Weeks  of  my  Life,  I  had  rarely  known  ' 
Tears,  except  those  that  were  for  the  Joy  of  the  Salvation  ! 
of  God.  But  now,  scarce  a  day  passes  me  without  a  Flood  i 
of  Tears,  and  my  Eyes  even  Decay  with  weeping.  One  | 
Day,  considering  how  frequently  and  foolishly  widowers  \ 
miscarry,  and  by  their  miscarriages  dishonour  God,  I  ear-  \ 
nestly  with  Tears  besought  the  Lord,  That  he  would  please 
to  favour  nie^  so  far  as  to  kill  me  rather  than  to  leave  me  i 
unto  anything  that  might  bring  any  Remarkable  Dishonour  '■ 
unto  His  Holy  Name.  (Within  a  few  Minutes,  I  found  , 
myself  grow  very  111.  ...  I  suspected  that  the  Lord  was  ' 
going  to  take  me  at  my  word.  But  anon,  1  perceived  that  ! 
it  was  nothing  but  Vapours,""^ 

The  next  month  began  a  new  trial.  He  received  a  ! 
visit  from  a  very  attractive  young  gentlewoman,  who  de-  -• 
clared  that  she  had  long  admired  his  public  character,  \ 
and  now  felt  herself  at  liberty  to  confess  herself  equally  i 
pleased  with  his  person.  The  state  of  perplexity  into  j 
which  this  address  threw  him  lasted  for  two  months.        i 

His  diary  for  1 703  ^  begins  with  a  birthday  fast  on  • 
this  occasion.  His  note  of  it  is  typical  of  all  on  the  ; 
subject.  j 

"  Nature  itself,"  he  writes,  ^*  causes  in  me  a  mighty  \ 
Tenderness  for  a  person  so  very  amiable.     Breeding  re-  , 

1  In  possession  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society.  j 


HIS  SECOND  MARRIAGE.  205 

quires  me  to  treat  her  with  Honour  and  Respect,  and  very 
much  of  Deference  to  all  that  she  shall  at  any  time  ask  of 
me.  But  Religion,  above  all,  obliges  me  instead  of  a  rash 
Rejecting  her  Conversation,  to  Contrive  rather  how  I  may 
Imitate  the  Goodness  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  his  deal- 
ing with  such  as  are  upon  a  Conversion  unto  him.  —  On  the 
other  side  I  cannot  but  fear  a  fearful  Snare,  and  that  I  may  2 
soon  fall  into  some  error  in  my  Conversation,  if  the  point 
proposed  unto  me  be  found  after  all  unattainable  thro'  the 
violent  Storm  of  Opposition  which  I  cannot  but  foresee 
.  .  .  will  be  made  unto  it." 

So  on  the  i8th  of  February  he  begged  her  to  desist ; 
and,  finding  her  inflexible,  devoted  himself  to  the  task 
of  converting  her.  And  on  the  20th  he  held  a  vigil, 
partly  for  himself,  whom  he  feared  "  rejected  and  ab- 
horred of  God,"  —  relatives  and  friends  being  dis- 
pleased with  gossip  about  the  gentlewoman,  —  but 
partly  for  his  church. 

**  It  was  a  consolation  unto  me,"  he  writes,  "to  think 
That  when  my  people  were  all  asleep  in  their  Beds  their 
poor  pastor  should  be  watching  and  praying  and  weeping 
for  them." 

On  the  27th,  he  held  another  fast,  in  which  he  gave 
up  to  the  Lord  "  the  Ingenious  Child  that  sollicits  my 
Respects  unto  her."  On  the  6th  of  March  he  was  in 
great  trouble ;  the  gentlewoman's  reputation  turned 
out  to  be  somewhat  damaged  ;  to  marry  her  would 
seriously  interfere  with  his  ministry  ;  and  her  attentions  J 
were  beginning  to  cause  much  tattle. 

On  the  1 2th,  his  state  of  mind  was  confused:  the 
Assembly  had  voted 

"the  most  unworthy  man  in  the  world  to  be  Praesident  of 
the  Colledge  in  Cambridge.    God  knows  what  further  trials 


206  COTTON  MATHER. 

are  coming  upon  me."  But  at  the  same  time,  "  the  Spirit 
of  the  Lord  sometimes  does  Visit  me  with  Raptures  of 
Assurances,  That  He  has  loved  me,  and  that  I  shall  glorify 
Him.  I  am  sometimes  even  ready  to  faint  away  with  the 
Rapturous  praelibations  of  the  Heavenly  World." 

On  the  15th,  he  definitely  renounced  the  gentle- 
woman. "  I  struck  the  Knife  into  the  Heart  of  my 
Sacrifice  by  a  Letter  to  her  Mother."  But  next  day 
comes  this :  — 

**  Was  ever  man  more  Tempted  than  the  miserable 
Mather  ?  Should  I  tell  in  how  many  Forms  the  Devil  has 
assaulted  me,  ...  it  would  strike  my  Friends  with  Hor- 
rour.  Sometimes  Temptations  to  Impurities:  and  some- 
times to  Blasphemy  and  Atheism  and  the  Abandonment  of 
all  Religion  as  a  mere  Delusion  :  and  sometimes  to  Self- 
Destruction  itself.  These,  even  These,  O  miserable  Math- 
er, do  follow  thee  with  an  astonishing  Fury.  But  I  fall 
down  into  the  Dust  on  my  Study  floor,  with  Tears  before 
the  Lord:  and  then,  they  quickly  vanish  :  Tis  fair  weather 
again.     Lord,  what  wilt  thou  do  with  me  .'* " 

On  the  3d  of  April  he  held  another  fast,  to  guard 
against  the  temptations  of  widowhood.  He  would  like 
to  remain  a  widower,  he  thought ;  but  his  father  and  his 
friends  advised  otherwise.  On  the  13th,  14th,  and  15th, 
he  kept  three  successive  days  of  fasting  and  prayer,  in 
which  extraordinary  things  were  done  for  him. 

*'The  Angels  of  Heaven  are  at  work  for  me,"  he  writes, 
"  And  I  have  my  own  A?t^el,  who  is  a  better  Friend  unto 
me,  than  any  I  have  upon  Earth." 

But  the  "  desirable  frame  "  in  which  this  left  him 
lasted  only  two  days.  Still,  on  the  i8th  of  May  he 
found  himself  assured  that 

"for  the  sake  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  whose  I  am,  a 
desireable  consort  should  be  bestowed  upon  me  ;    and  a 


HIS  SECOND  MARRIAGE.  207 

glorious  Angel  of  the  Lord,  should  be  concerned  for  me 
(as  for  Isaac  of  old)  in  this  important  matter.** 

His  friends,  it  appears,  were  trying  to  make  a  match 
for  him ;  but  succeeded  only  in  getting  him  distress- 
ingly talked  about.  A  "  marvellous  providence  of 
God  **  diverted  him  from  **  doing  a  thing  whereto  .  .  . 
Friends  had  mightily  urged "  him.  On  the  19th,  he 
went  to  Salem  for  five  days.  The  gentlewoman  and 
her  mother  took  advantage  of  his  absence  to  call  on 
Increase  Mather,  who  had  been  suffering  with  gout; 
and  to  urge  their  case.  But  Cotton  Mather,  though  dis- 
tressed, remained  resolute.    And  a  little  later  he  writes, 

"While  the  Lord  is  otherwise  laying  me  exceedingly 
low,  He  yett  gratifies  me  with  Strange  Favours  on  that 
point  which  is  the  very  Apple  of  my  Eye:  and  that  is,  my 
being  employed  !n  Service  for  His  Blessed  Name." 

In  other  words,   his  condition  had   proved  unusually 
favourable  to  pulpit  eloquence. 

In  June,  when  gossip  began  to  accuse  him  of  jilting 
the  gentlewoman,  she  joined  her  mother  in  loyally 
protesting  that  his  conduct  had  been  thoroughly  hon- 
ourable. 

"  Yea,'*  he  writes,  "  they  have  proceeded  so  far  beyond  all 
bounds  in  my  vindication,  as  to  say,  They  verily  look  on  Mr. 
M r  to  be  as  great  a  Saint  of  God  as  any  upon  earth,** 

The  poor  gentlewoman  had  a  worse  trial  coming, 
though.  Sundry  fasts  of  Cotton  Mather's  early  in  July 
directed  his  attention  to  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Hubbard,  a 
godly  and  comely  widow  who  lived  near  by.  On  the 
14th,  he  paid  her  his  first  visit.  In  a  few  days  more 
they  were  engaged.  The  gentlewoman  raged,  but  re- 
lented.     People  in  general  approved.      And    Cotton 


2o8  COTTON  MATHER, 

Mather's  troubles  reduced  themselves  to  groundless 
fears  that  he  should  die  before  his  wedding  day.  On 
the  1 8th  of  August,  after  spending  the  day  in  Heaven, 
he  became  in  the  evening  the  husband  of  "  the  most 
agreeable  Consort  (all  jthings  considered)  that  all 
America  could  have  afforded  me." 
Of  this  lady  her  son  Samuel  wrote  :  — 

**  She  was  one,  of  finished  Piety  and  Probity^  and  of  an 
unspotted  Reputation  ;  one  of  ^ood  sense,  and  bless'd  with 
a  compleat  Discretion  in  ordering  an  Household  ;  one  of 
singular  good-Humour  and  incomparable  Sweetness  of 
Temper ;  one,  with  a  very  handsome  and  engaging  Coun- 
tenance; and  one  honourably  descended  and  related;  .  .  . 
the  Daughter  of  Dr.  John  Clark.  She  had  been  a 
Widow  four  years  when  Dr.*  Mather  married  her."'* 

The  rest  of  Cotton  Mather's  notes  for  this  year  show 
him  very  busy  with  pastoral  and  literary  work,  and  quite 
relieved  of  the  morbid  tension  that  preceded  his  mar- 
riage. 

My  summary  of  his  annual  literary  work  in  the  last 
chapter  should  be  sufficient.  A  glance  at  Sibley's  cata- 
logue of  his  works  ^  will  show  that  the  years  I  have 
summarized  are  typical.  Of  this  matter  I  shall  say  no 
more,  save  that  his  publications  in  1703  amounted  to 
twelve  ;  and  in  1 704  to  the  same  number.  And  so  he 
kept  on  all  his  Hfe. 

His  diary  for  1 704  is  not  preserved.  The  only  facts 
I  have  noted  for  this  year  are  these.  A  daughter, 
Elizabeth,  was  born  to  him.     It  was  the  year  when 

*  The  title   is  premature.    Cotton  Mather  was  not  Doctor  of 
Divinity  until  17 10. 
'^  Life,  page  13. 
8  Harvard  Graduates,  III.  42-158. 


HIS  SECOND  MARRIAGE.  209 

Deerfield  was  sacked.  In  June,  certain  pirates  were 
hanged  in  Boston ;  and  Cotton  Mather  preached  to 
them  and  went  with  them  to  execution,  where,  "  when 
the  scaffold  was  let  to  sink,"  Sewall  writes,  "  there  was 
such  a  Screech  of  the  Women  that  my  wife  heard  it 
sitting  in  our  Entry,  ...  yet  the  wind  was  sou- west. 
Our  house  is  a  full  mile  from  the  place."  In  July, 
Sewall  notes  that  Cotton  Mather  was  at  Commence- 
ment; on  October  12  th,  that  Cotton  Mather  prayed 
for  the  College.  Two  days  before,  Samuel  Mather^ 
tells  us,  a  dying  man  had  sent  for  Cotton  Mather,  to 
beg  his  forgiveness  for  wanton  slanders.  Mather  for- 
gave him :  and  "  the  Man  .  .  .  kept  continually  cry- 
ing for  him  to  be  with  him  the  next  Day  in  the 
Forenoon,  and  he  died  in  the  Afternoon."  I  incline, 
also,  to  attribute  to  the  period  of  his  troubles  with  the 
gendewoman  of  1703  the  anecdote  preserved  in  a 
vituperative  pamphlet  of  1707,  and  probably  a  good 
example  of  the  stories  told  of  him  by  his  enemies.  It 
runs  thus : — 

"  A  Gentlewoman  of  Gayety^  near  Boston^  was  frequently 
visited  by  the  Reverend  Mr.  C,  AI.  which  giving  offence 
to  some  of  his  Audience,  he  promised  to  avoid  her  Conver- 
sation But  Good  intentions  being  frustrated  by  Vicious 
Inclinations,  he  becomes  again  her  humble  Servant ;  the 
Reciprocal  promise  being  first   made,   that  Neither  of 

THEM    SHOULD    CONFESS    THEIR    SEEING    EACH    OTHER  : 

However  it  becoming  again  publick,  his  Father  accused  him 
of  it,  who  after  two  or  three  Hems  to  recover  himself,  gave 
this  A  equivocal  Answer,  Indeed,  Father,  if  I  should 

SAY  I  did  see  her,  I  SHOULD  TELL  A  GREAT  LYE."  ^ 

^  Life,  page  64. 

2  Sewall's  Diary,  II.  81*.    See  page  222. 
14 


.2IO  COTTON  MATHER. 

Which  story,  having  read  his  diaries,  I  do  not 
believe. 

The  diary  for  1 705^  records  a  busy  year,  more  whole- 
some than  usual.  I  have  noted  a  few  entries.  On  the 
1 6th  of  March,  maligned  for  falsehood,  he  held  a  very 
earnest  day  of  fasting  and  prayer. 

<*And  I  considered,"  he  writes,  "That  tho'  my  whole 
Time  all  the  Day  long,  and  all  the  Week  long,  is  employ'd 
in  a  continual  Contrivance  of  .  .  .  Zeal  to  do  good,  yett 
few  men  meet  with  more  clogs  in  it,  from  the  malignity  of 
Evil  people.  .  .  .  And  if  I  had  jogg'd  on  in  an  Indifferent 
manner  as  others  do,  and  less  thwarted  and  vexed  the 
Divel  in  his  interests,  I  might  have  been  as  little  envied 
and  maligned  as  they:  But  I  resolved,  That  I  would  not 
at  all  Abate  of  my  Endeavors  to  be  universally  Service- 
able." 

In  May,  Nancy  had  another  severe  illness. 

"  I  cannot  be  at  rest,"  he  writes,  "  until  I  have  obtained 
of  the  Lord  that  this  Child  shall  in  Spiritual  Blessings 
have  an  abundant  and  glorious  Compensation  for  all  her 
Temporal  Sufferings." 

In  May  he  was  specially  maligned  by  a  "  very  wicked 
fellow,"  who,  with  Cotton  Mather's  approval,  had  been 
disciplined  by  the  Church  of  Wobum.  Early  in  June, 
then,  he  examined  himself  for 

"  what  marks  I  can  find  in  myself,  that  might  carry  me 
cheerfully  thro'  the  Dark  Valley  of  the  Shadow  of  Death, 
if  I  should  be  (which  I  have  abundance  of  Reason  to  look 
for)  immediately  called  into  it."  He  found  eleven,  of  which 
the  last  was  compassion  for  personal  enemies.  "  I  am 
afraid,"  he  writes,  "of  allowing  my  Soul  a  Wish  of  Evil  to 
the  Worst  of  them  All.  .  .  .  Q.  Whether  the  man  that  can 

1  In  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


ms  SECOArDLf\dMVJ^(^\T'f  \   211 

find  these  marks  upon  himself  may  not  conclude  himself 
marked  out  for  the  City  of  God  ? " 

At  this  time  he  was  very  busy,  starting  Societies  for 
the  Suppression  of  Disorders. 

'*  I  am  well  content,"  he  writes,  **  that  I  have  not  the 
Time,  to  Record  a  hundredth  part  of  the  viethods  to  bring 
forth  Fruit  wherein  I  am  endeavoring  \o glorify  God^so  that 
they  should  be  utterly  buried  in  oblivion  for  this  world." 

In  July,  hearing  in  a  hymn  the  words, 

"With  persons  merciful  that  be 
Thou  merciful  thyself  wilt  show," 

he  was  affected  to  tears  by  the  thought  that  the  merci- 
ful dispositions  he  could  discover  in  himself  were  but 
faint  rays  of  the  sun  of  God*s  mercy.  In  November, 
he  examined  himself  curiously. 

"A  man  Bitten  with  a  Mad-Dog,''^  he  writes,  "has  not 
only  his  Body^  but  his  very  Soul  also  poisoned.  The  poi- 
son .  .  .  pervades  the  Nervous  Fluid.  .  .  .  The  Spirit  of 
such  a  man,  will  cause  him  to  say  to  his  Friend,  .  .  .  / 
would  f tot  hurt  you.  Notwithstanding  this,  yett  when  his 
Fitt  arrives  the  Spirit  must  knock  under  and  ly  fettered. 
.  .  •  The  Soul  of  every  man  is  Dog-Bitten^  or,  which  is  as 
bad,  serpent-bitten^  or  Divel-bitten.  Original  Sin  has  de- 
praved it.  .  r  •  A  Regenerate  Spirit  .  .  .  chuses  above  all 
Things,  to  Glorify  God,  .  .  .  and  it  has  gotten  an  Empire 
over  the  Soul^  in  doing  of  it." 

By  this  test,  he  found  himself  probably  regenerate. 
In  January,  there  was  a  thanksgiving  for  successes  in 
the  war  with  France. 

"  For  the  best  part  of  Two  Hours  together,"  he  writes, 
"my  soul  kept  soaring  and  Flaming  towards  Heaven  in  the 
wondrous  praises  of  God.     Such  length  in  this  kind  of  De- 


212  CO  TTON  MA  THER.  \ 

votions  being  somewhat  unusual,  and  unto  some  folks  (I  ! 
fear'd)  uneasy,  I  took  occasion  in  my  Sermon  to  make  this  • 
Apology  for  it."  j 

The  apology  I  will  not  quote  ;  it  is  very  long.  j 

The  volume  closes  with  five  elaborate  notes :  one  \ 
about  the  dispositions  of  his  mind  relating  to  a  great  ' 
reputation  in  the  world,  concerning  which  he  believes  ■ 
himself  to  care  little ;  one  about  the  education  of  his  ; 
children,  which  is  substantially  what  his  son  Samuel  ; 
reports  of  his  practices ;  ^  one  about  several  points  of  ; 
conduct,  in  which  he  resolves  to  practise  Christian  hu-  ■ 
mility ;  and  one  about  his  flock,  which  he  purposes  to  ' 
edify  by  pastoral  visits,  and  by  edifying  speeches  on  ■ 
all  occasions,  —  giving  them  many  books,  too,  with  the  ; 
charge  that  they  are  to  remember  that  he  speaks  to 
them  whenever  the  books  are  before  them.  The  fifth  i 
note  is  similar  to  that  which  closes  nearly  every  volume 
of  the  diary,  —  a  memorandum  of  the  texts  he  has  : 
preached  from  this  year :  it  covers  four  closely  written  ^ 
pages.  • 

The  diary  for  1 706^  opens  with  a  very  long  memo-  ■ 
randum  of  how  his  time  is  occupied :  this  is  digested  i 
under  thirty-one  heads.  It  appears  that  he  rises  at 
seven  or  eight ;  *  sings  a  hymn  of  praise  ;  writes  a  short 
paragraph,  —  "  hereby  sometimes  I  have  insensibly  -, 
prepared  whole  sermons'*;  adds  illustrations  to  the  ^ 
"  Biblia  Americana  "  ;  prays  in  private  and  then  with  \ 
his  family;  works;  dines,  edifying  the   family  mean-   | 

1  See  page  165.  ^ 

2  In  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society  \ 

3  Thus  habitually  sleeping  eight  or  nine  hours,  which  is  prob-  | 
ably  what  kept  him  alive.  | 


HIS  SECOND  MARRIAGE,  213 

while;  retires  to  his  study  for  a  short  prayer;  goes 
out  visiting ;  about  the  shutting  in  of  the  evening  hears 
the  children  say  the  catechism,  and  makes  an  evening 
prayer  chiefly  of  thanksgiving ;  sups  at  ten,  edifying  the 
adult  part  of  his  family ;  prays  and  reflects  on  the  day 
in  his  study ;  and  reads  himself  to  sleep  with  some  agree- 
able book  at  eleven  or  so.  Sermons,  the  children,  the 
sick,  calls  from  all  manner  of  visitors,  the  fourteen  or 
fifteen  religious  societies  he  belongs  to,  new  books  to 
be  read,  frequent  days  of  fasting  and  prayer,  and  the 
disciplme  of  his  church  constantly  engage  his  attention. 
He  notes  all  this  in  the  hope  that  by  perusing  it  he  may 
be  kept  up  to  work.  Four  pages  of  notes  of  his  cor- 
respondents follow :  I  observe  no  names  of  permanent 
importance. 

His  birthday  note  is  worth  remembering.    He  would 
like  to  record  thoughts 

"  that  carry  in  them  a  peculiar  Advancement  of  my  Soul  to- 
wards the  perfection  after  which  I  am  aspiring.  One  of 
them,  which  has  been  of  late  singularly  useful  to  me  in  my 
pressing  after  the  true  temper  of  Christianity  is  This.  I  see 
all  Creatures  everywhere  full  of  tlieir  Delights.  The  Birds 
are  singing;  the  Fish  are  sporting;  the  Four-footed  are 
glad  of  what  they  meet  withal ;  the  very  Insects  have  their 
satisfactions.  Tis  a  marvellous  Display  of  Infinite  Good- 
ness. The  Good  God  has  made  His  Creatures  capable  of 
Delights :  He  accommodates  them  with  continual  Delights. 
These  Delights  are  the  Delicious  Entertainments  of  His 
Infinite  Goodness.  His  Goodness  takes  pleasure  in  .  .  . 
the  Delights  of  His  Creatures. — Well:  Is  there  no  way 
for  me  to  Resemble  and  Imitate  this  Incomparable  Good- 
ness of  God  ?  Yes  :  I  see  my  Neighbours  all  accommo- 
dated with  their  various  Delights.  All  have  some,  and 
some  have  many.    Now  I  may  honestly  make  their  Delights 


214  CO  TTON  MA  THER, 

my  own.  ...  I  may  make  their  prosperity,  not  my  Envy^  j 
but  my  pleasure.  .  .  .  Oh,  the  glorious  Joy  of  this  Good-  ' 
ness  !     Lord,  Imprint  this  thy  Image  upon  me  ! "  j 

With  good  resolutions,  one  against  evil-speaking,  I 
for  example ;  with  prayers  and  assurances,  among 
others  for  the  prisoners  among  the  French  and  In- 1 
dians,  the  year  went  on.  In  March,  little  Increase  - 
having  begun  school.  Cotton  Mather  wrote  a  verse : 
daily  for  the  child  to  get  by  heart,  that  he  might  **  im-  \ 
prove  in  goodness  at  the  same  time  that  he  improved  \ 
in  Reading  '* :  these  verses  ultimately  made  a  popular: 
book.  In  April,  he  was  pleased  to  find  that  he  had] 
"  no  Fondness  at  all  for  Applause  and  Honour  in  this ; 
World  "  :  for  which  disposition  "  in  the  midst  of  .  .  .-; 
Humiliations,"  he  gave  thanks.  Late  in  May,  lan-^ 
guishing  in  health,  he  hurried  work  and  finished  the; 
first  draft  of  the  "  Biblia  Americana."  He  kept  add-  \ 
ing  to  it,  however,  for  years.  As  late  as  1720  he^ 
wrote  John  Winthrop  ^  that  he  had  inserted  in  the  ^ 
"Biblia  Americana"  an  account  of  the  discovery  in^ 
New  England  of  a  water-dove,  probably  the  species  i 
employed  by  Noah.  The  manuscript  of  the  "  Biblia ; 
Americana,"  by  far  the  most  voluminous  of  Cotton! 
Mather's  works,  is  preserved  by  the  Massachusetts  His-; 
torical  Society.  He  could  never  find  subscribers  enough  \ 
to  publish  it;  and  I  have  not  had  the  time  or  the] 
courage  to  examine  it.  At  a  superficial  glance,  it  seems  \ 
to  be  a  marvellously  industrious,  uncritical  collection  of  i 
every  scrap  of  learning  he  could  find  which  might  by^ 
any  chance  have  bearing  on  Holy  Writ.  It  includes  a^ 
great  deal  of  such  matter  as  is  most  familiarly  known  | 
1  Mather  Papers,  436.  1 


HIS  SECOND  MARRIAGE,  215 

nowadays  in  Burton's  "Anatomy  of  Melancholy'*; 
and  a  great  deal,  too,  of  that  eager  observation  of  na- 
ture ^  which  some  years  later  made  Cotton  Mather  a 
Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society. 

His  next  work,  printed  in  June,  was  an  e^say  fn  prn, 
mnte  the  Christianizinj^  of  Negroes,^  He  determined 
to  give  a  copy  of  this  to  every  family  in  New  Eng- 
land who  possessed  a  Negro,  and  to  send  copies  to  the 
West  Indies. 

In  July,  he  was  much  disturbed  about  illicit  trade 
with  hostile  Indians.  These  Indians  made  a  descent 
this  very  month  on  the  Andover  road,  over  which  he 
had  passed  a  few  days  before.  On  this  journey,  he 
writes, 

"being  desirous  to  do  some  Good  on  the  Road  in  the 
Woods,  I  called  some  children  to  me,  which  I  met  there, 
and  bestowed  some  Instructions  with  a  little  Book  upon 
them:  which  I  understood  afterwards  made  no  little  Im- 
pression upon  the  Family.  But  it  proved  a  family  which 
in  a  few  Dayes  the  Indians  visited,  and  murdered  the 
mother,  and  several  of  the  children.'* 

So  the  year  went  on,  busier  than  ever.  In  October 
I  find  two  notes  worth  recording.     On  the   17th,  he 

writes :  — 

"  One  of  my  more  special  Actions  .  .  .  was  to  make  my 
Children,  Four  of  them,^   successively   to  come  into  my 

^  For  examples  of  this,  see  Cotton  Mather's  letters  to  John 
Winthrop,  in  the  Mather  Papers. 

2  See  Sibley,  III.  93 ;  and  in  regard  to  Cotton  Mather's  rela- 
tions to  negroes  in  general,  see  a  paper  by  Professor  Haynes 
in  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society. 

^  Katharine,  Abigail,  Hannah,  and  Increase ;  their  ages 
ranged  from  fourteen  to  seven. 


2 1 6  CO  TTON  MA  THER.  i 

Study,  and  observe  and  mention  to  me  the  special  mercies 
which  they  were  sensible  they  had  received  of  God ;  andj 
then  charge  them  immediately  to  Retire  and  give  Thanks 
unto  the  Lord,  and  beg  to  be  possessed  by  the  Spirit  of  the- 
Lord." 

On  Wednesday,  the  30th,  he  writes  :  — 

"With  many  favourable  Circumstances  for  which  the^ 
Lord  had  been  sought  unto,  my  Consort  fell  into  Travail ; ' 
and  after  a  Wondrous  Good  and  Quick  Time,  was  aboutj 
three-quarters  of  an  hour  past  nine  at  Night,  happily  de-j 
livered  of  a  Son;  to  appearance  a  hearty  and  an  handsome! 
Infant.  —  On  the  Lord's-day  following  I  Baptized  this  my*; 
Son,  and  called  him  Samuel.  Tis  my  desire  to  have  him 
devoted  unto  the  Service  of  the  Lord  as  long  as  he  lives.'* 

That  night,  accordingly,  he  held  a  vigil  for  his  whole; 
family.  This  Samuel  lived  to  grow  up  into  a  very] 
commonplace  divine,  whose  biography  of  his  father | 
is  probably  the  most  colourless  book  in  the  English  | 
language.  i 

In  November,  Cotton  Mather's  assurances  were  re- ; 
warded  by  the  return  of  his  cousin,  Mr.  Williams  of  i 
Deerfield,  from  captivity.  In  December  some  gentle- ' 
men  gave  Mather  a  negro,  named  Onesimus,  worth  forty  j 
or  fifty  pounds. 

"  I  would  use  the  best  endeavours,"  he  writes,  "  to  make  \ 
him  a  servant  of  Christ,  and  also  be  more  serviceable  than 
ever  to  a  flock  which  laies  me  under  such  obligations." 

The  same  month  comes  a  note  that  shows  his  temper  i 
up.     He  has  two  wicked  brothers-in-law,  he  writes  :  — 

"  The  first  of  these  prodigies,  namely  J.  O.,^  married  my  < 
Lovely  Sister  Hannah,  a  most  Ingenious  and  sweet-Natured,  [ 

1  John  Oliver. 


HIS  SECOND   MARRIAGE,  217 

and  good-carriaged  Child :  one  that  would  have  been  a  Wife, 
to  have  made  any  Gentleman  Happy ;  but  married  unto  a 
Raving  Bruit.  The  Fellow,  whom  they  called,  Her  Hus- 
band, perfectly  murdered  her,  by  his  base  and  abusive  way 
of  treating  her ;  and  he  chose  to  employ  in  a  special  man- 
ner, the  ebullitions  of  his  venome  against  me,  to  weary  and 
worry  her,  out  of  her  Life,  who  Loved  me  dearly.  ...  At 
last  on  id.  lom.,  ...  the  pangs  of  Death  came  upon  her. 
Her  Death  was  Long  and  Hard,  and  has  awakened  me 
more  than  ever,  to  pray  for  an  Easy  Death.  She  kept  in 
her  dying  Distresses  much  calling  on  me  :  her  Brother^  her 
^Brother!  As  I  had  heretofore  used  all  possible  Diligence 
and  Contrivance,  to  prepare  her  for  her  Death,  so  I  now  as- 
sisted her,  as  well  as  I  could,  in  her  last  Hours.  I  prayed 
with  her  Six  Times  this  Day:  and  in  the  Night  following 
she  died.  The  Monster,  to  whom  she  owes  her  Death, 
now  with  Anguish,  bears  a  most  honourable  Testimony  for 
her  ;  as  the  best  Wife  in  the  World  ;  and  a  great  example 
of  piety.  And  from  a  convinced  conscience,  he  now  also 
speaks  of  ;//<?,  with  no  little  pretence  of  Honour  and  Ac- 
knowledgement. Indeed,  she  had  Cause  to  Bless  God  for 
the  Wretch,  for  he  was  a  great  occasion  of  her  growing  a 
serious  and  gracious  Christian,  weaned  from  this  World 
and  fitted  for  a  better." 

The  other  wicked  brother-in-law  was  a  Phillips, 
whose  offences  seem  less  a  matter  of  opinion.  On  the 
loth  of  January,  Cotton  Mather  writes  >  — 

"  My  Father-in- Law  at  Charlestown  has  of  late  been  in  a 
very  froward  and  Evil  Frame.  The  elder  of  his  Two 
wicked  Sons,  has  been  lately  Fined  by  the  General  Assem- 
bly of  the  Province  for  his  unlawful  Trade  with  the  Enemy. 
The  crime  of  the  Traders,  whereof  he  was  one  filled  the 
Countrey  with  a  mighty  Inflammation.  On  that  occasion, 
it  was  necessary  for  me,  to  bear  my  part  with  the  other 
ministers,  in  a  faithful  Testimony.     And  I  did  my  part  as 


2i8  COTTON  MATHER.  \ 

easily  and  as  modestly,  tho'  as  Faithfully  as  I  could.  The  1 
Humoursome  Old  Man  is  so  very  unhappy,  as  to  be  en-  , 
raged  at  me,  and  express  himself,  as  I  hear,  very  En-  ! 
ragedly  and  Abusively.  .  .  .  His  Two  Wicked  Sons  do  | 
also  strangely  manage  him."  ■ 

So  Cotton  Mather  was  afraid  that  old  Mr.  Phillips  . 
would  disinherit  his  Mather  grandchildren  and  oflfered ! 
up  prayers  accordingly.  \ 

The  very  next  note,  however,  is  of  different  tenor :  —  . 

"  My  little  Son  waits  upon  his  Grandfather  every  day,  for  \ 
his  Instruction,  as  well  as  upon  other  Tutors  and  Teach-"' 
ers.  This  day  I  sent  him  on  an  Errand,  where  the  person  ■ 
imposing  on  his  Flexible  Temper,  detained  him  so  long  . 
that  his  Grandfather  was  displeased  at  him,  for  coming  so 
late ;  and  his  punishment  was,  that  his  Grandfather,  did  \ 
Refuse  to  Instruct  him,  as  he  uses  to  do.  The  child,  una-  . 
ble  to  bear  so  heavy  a  punishment,  as  that  his  Grandfather  ■ 
should  not  look  favourably  upon  him,  repairs  to  me,  full  of  . 
weeping  Affliction.  Hereupon,  I  applied  myself  with  a  ; 
Note,  unto  my  Father,  as  an  Advocate  for  the  Child.  I  ' 
pleaded  all  that  could  be  said  by  way  of  Apology  for  the  . 
Infirmity  of  the  Child.  I  asked,  that  I  might  bear  the  dis- 
pleasure due  for  it,  because  of  what  had  passed  relating  to  \ 
it.  I  assured  my  Father,  the  child  should  no  more  in  this  ; 
way  displease  him.  So  the  Child  was  presently  received  • 
into  favour  with  my  Father :  My  Father  looked  on  him  ^ 
with  a  pleased  Aspect,  and  bestowed  agreeable  Illumina-  ■ 
tion  upon  him.  I  thought,  the  Lord  ordered  this  little  j 
Accident  this  Day,  to  raise  in  my  mind,  the  Thoughts  of  \ 
the  Reconciliation,  which  the  Son  of  God,  who  is  my  Advo-  ' 
cate  with  the  Father,  would  obtain  for  me,  with  God."  \ 

The  diary  closes  with  a  painful  record  of  how  Cotton  \ 
Mather  was  persistently  vexed  with  vile  thoughts  :  but  ' 
he  fought. them  hard,  he  resolved  that  they  should  not  \ 


JOSEPH  DUDLEY,  219 

tempt  him  to  forbear  testimony  against  sin  in  others, 
and  he  meditated 

"  on  the  inexpressible  evil,  which  there  would  be,  ...  if 
one  of  my  .  .  .  many  and  mighty  obligations,  to  the  most 
unspotted  Sancuty,  should  harbour  or  indulge  in  myself 
any  wicked  Thing  in  the  World." 

Of  the  diary  for  1707  only  a  fragment  remains  ;i  in 
which  I  have  remarked  nothmg  of  more  note  than  that 
Cotton  Mather  was  praying  fervently  for  the  expedi- 
tion against  Port  Royal  that  came  to  nothing.  For  the 
notable  events  of  this  year,  then,  we  must  turn  to  other 
authorities. 

Palfrey  tells  with  great  clearness  the  story  of  Joseph 
Dudley's  administration.*  Frequent  notes  of  Sewall's, 
a  member  of  the  Council,  a  judge  of  the  highest  court 
in  the  Province,  and  closely  connected  by  marriage 
with  the  Governor,  become  very  vivid  when  we  keep 
in  mind  the  state  of  politics.  In  brief,  with  his  over- 
bearing temper,  so  thoroughly  foreign  to  the  temper 
of  New  England,  Dudley  had  been  doing  his  best  to 
strengthen  the  power  of  the  Crown.  Without  much 
success,  he  had  been  carrying  on  the  war  against  Can- 
ada; in  1707  a  fruitless  expedition  was  sent  against 
Port  Royal,  restored  to  the  French  by  the  Peace  of 
1697.  Meantime,  hke  other  men  in  office  before  and 
since,  he  had  taken  good  care  of  his  personal  friends ; 
and  was  suspected  of  connivance  with  some  of  them  in 
illicit  trade  with  the  enemy.  As  Cotton  Mather  wrote 
in  1 706,  a  number  of  illicit  traders,  among  whom  was 

^  In  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 
2  Book  IV.  Chapters  VIII.  to  X. 


2  20  CO  TTON  MA  THER, 

John  Phillips,  brother  of  the  first  Mrs.  Mather,  had] 
been  condemned  by  the  General  Court  to  pay  heavy  \ 
fines  for  their  offence.  It  is  certain  that  Dudley  wrote 
to  England  in  their  behalf ;  and  that  the  Privy  Council 
ultimately  ordered  the  fines  to  be  repaid,  on  the  ground  j 
that  the  General  Court  of  Massachusetts  had  no  cog- 1 
nizance  of  the  offence.  Before  this  decision,  certain 
men  of  New  England,  mostly  resident  in  London,' 
had  addressed  to  the  Queen  a  formal  petition  for; 
the  removal  of  Dudley,  for  corruption,  injustice,  and  = 
oppression. 

Harvard  College,^  meanwhile,  had  been  proceeding ; 
under  the  charge  of  Vice  President  Willard,  who  had; 
retained  meantime  his  charge  of  the  Old  South  Church,  i 
and  seems  to  have  given  little  more  attention  to  aca- ; 
demic  duties  than  Increase  Mather  had  given.  Appar- ■ 
ently,  however,  he  was  much  less  vigorously  conservative  ^ 
in  temper ;  and  so  far  as  records  show  made  no  par-  • 
ticular  efforts  to  secure  a  new  charter.  As  we  have 
seen,  Dudley  twice  suggested  that  application  be  made  j 
for  one  to  the  Crown.  But  no  notice  was  taken  ot 
these  suggestions :  the  friends  of  the  College,  Quincy  i 
thinks,  were  convinced  that  no  satisfactory  charter  j 
could  be  secured  from  any  more  foreign  source  than  ] 
their  own  elected  Provincial  legislature.  ] 

Willard's  health  was  now  failing.  He  managed  to  j 
preside  at  Commencement,  but  gave  the  degrees  so  1 
feebly  that  Sewall,  who  was  not  far  off,  could  not  hear  ! 
a  word  he  said.  In  the  middle  of  August  he  went  to  ! 
Cambridge  for  the  last  time,  where  he  found  so  fewj 
scholars  that  he  returned   home   before   prayer-time,  i 

1  Quincy,  Vol.  I.  Chapter  VIII. 


HARVARD  COLLEGE.  221 

And    on    the    12th  of  September,  a    friend  informed 
Sewall  that  the  President  was  very  sick. 

"I  hoped  it  might  go  off,'*  writes  Sewall,  "and  went  to 
Diner ;  when  I  came  there  Mr.  Pemberton^  was  at  Prayer, 
near  concluding,  a  pretty  many  in  the  Chamber.  After 
Prayer,  many  went  out,  I  staid  and  sat  down  :  and  in  a  few 
minutes  saw  my  dear  Pastor  Expire:  .  .  .  just  about  two 
hours  from  his  being  taken.  .  .  .  The  Doctors  were  in  an- 
other room  Consulting  what  to  doe.  .  .  .  Tis  thought  cut- 
ting his  finger,  might  bring  on  the  tumultuous  passion  that 
carried  him  away.     There  was  a  doleful!  cry  in  the  house.'* 

Three  days  later  Mr.  Willard  was  buried ;  both  of 
the  Mathers  were  among  his  bearers.  And  on  the  2d 
of  October,  a  fast  day,  the  Mathers  conducted  after- 
noon exercises  at  the  Old  South. 

The  first  business  of  the  Corporation  of  Harvard 
College  was  to  elect  a  President.  Increase  Mather 
was  nearly  sixty-nine  years  old.  But  Cotton  Mather 
was  only  forty-four.  His  learning,  his  piety,  his  ortho- 
doxy, and  his  devotion  to  the  old  principles  of  the 
College,  made  him,  in  his  own  opinion,  the  proper  suc- 
cessor of  Mr.  Willard.  There  is  reason  to  think  that 
the  want  of  deliberate  judgment  which  naturally  came 
from  his  overworked,  overwrought  habits  of  life,  led  his 
hopes  to  run  high.  So  what  happened  on  the  28th  of 
October  must  have  stung  him  to  the  quick. 

"  The  Fellows  of  Harvard  College  meet,"  writes  Sewall, 
"  and  chuse  Mr.  Leverett  President :  He  had  eight  votes, 
Dr.  Increase  Mather  three,  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  one.'* 

Within  the  week  Sewall  saw  for  the  first  time  a  docu- 
ment that  gave  rise  to  much  excitement  in  Boston. 

*  Willard's  colleague  at  the  Old  South. 


222  COTTON  MATHER,  j 

This  was  "  A  Memorial  of  the  Present  Deplorable  State  ' 
of  New  England,"  *  lately  published  in  London,  and  \ 
stating  with  great  distinctness  every  charge  against] 
Dudley.  These  were  supported  by  sundry  affidavits,  1 
and  by  a  long  letter,  evidently  written  by  Cotton ' 
Mather.  It  is  dated  October  2,  1 706  :  *  it  specifically  i 
mentions  the  proceedings  against  Phillips  and  the  other  i 
illicit  traders,  and  contains  this  passage  :  — 

**  Our  Present  Governour  is  not  without  a  number  of  * 
those,  whom  he  has  by  Promotions  and  Flatteries  made 
his  Friends;  but  this  hinders  not  a  much  more  consider-] 
able  number,  from  wishing,  that  we  had  a  Governour,  who ' 
would  put  an  end  unto  the  horrid  Reign  of  Bribery,  in  our- 
Administration,  and  who  would  not  infinitely  incommode' 
Her  Majesty's  Service,  by  keeping  the  People  in  con-, 
tinual  Jealousies  of  his  Plots,  upon  their  most  Valuable! 
Interests."  ! 

On  the  I  St  of  November,  the  day  when  Sewall  saw! 
this  pamphlet,  the  Governor  produced  in  the  Council! 
a  copy  of  the  petition  for  his  removal,  and  requested  i 
the  Council  to  vote  their  abhorrence  of  it.  Sewall, 
pleaded  for  delay,  but  the  vote  was  passed.  The  Dep-^ 
uties  refused  to  concur  in  it.  At  a  Conference  of  the] 
Houses  on  the  20th,  ; 

"Gov.  made  a  long  speech,  begining  from  his  father, 
who  laid  out  a  Thousand  pounds  in  the  first  adventure,, 
was  Governour.  He  himself  the  first  Magistrat  born  ini 
New  England  .  .  .  Took  an  opportunity  to  say,  he  heard  1 

1  Reprinted  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  volume  of  Sewall 's  '- 
Diary,  and  summarized  by  Palfrey,  Book  IV.  Chap.  VIII.  It  is ' 
in  a  reply  to  this  pamphlet  that  the  scandalous  story  appeared  i 
which  I  lately  cited,  page  209.  : 

2  Sewall's  Diary,  II.  40*-42*. 


JOSEPH  DUDLEY.  223 

some  whisper'd  as  if  the  Council  were  not  all  of  a  mind : 
He  with  courage  said  that  all  the  Council  were  of  the  same 
mind  as  to  every  word  of  the  Vote.  This  galPd  me  ;  yet  I 
knew  not  how  to  contradict  him  before  the  Houses."  At 
another  conference  next  day,  **  the  Govr.  had  the  Extract 
of  many  of  Mr.  C.  M.  Letters  read,  of  a  later  date  than 
that  in  the  printed  book,  .  .  .  giving:  him  a  high  charac- 
ter.** On  the  25th  of  November,  "  The  Govr.  read  Mr. 
Cotton  Mather's  letter  ...  in  Council.  .  .  .  When  the 
Govr.  came  to  the  horrid  Reif^  of  Bribery :  His  Excel- 
lency said.  None  but  a  Judge  or  Juror  could  be  Brib*d,  the 
Governour  could  not  be  bribed,  sons  of  Belial  brot  him 
no  Gifts.  Moved  that  [a  committee]  go  to  Mr.  Cotton 
Mather  with  the  Copy  of  his  Letter,  .  .  .  and  his  Letters 
to  the  Govr.,  and  speak  to  him  about  them:  this  was 
agreed  to.  I  shew'd  some  backwardness,  .  .  .  hinting 
whether  it  might  not  be  better  for  the  Govr.  to  go  to  him 
himself :  That  seem'd  to  be  Christ's  Rule,  except  the  Govr. 
would  deal  with  him  in  a  Civil  way.  ...  p.  m.  I  desired 
the  Governour's  patience  to  speak  a  word:  I  said  I  had 
been  concerned  about  the  Vote  pass'd  Novr.  i.  *  At  the 
Conference  his  Excellency  was  pleas'd  to  say,  that  every 
one  of  the  Council  remain'd  steady  to  their  vote,  and  every 
word  of  it:  This  Skrewing  the  Strings  of  your  Lute  to 
that  height,  has  broken  one  of  them ;  and  I  find  my  self 
under  the  Necessity  of  withdrawing  my  Vote ;  .  .  .  and 
desire  the  Secretary  may  be  directed  to  enter  it  in  the 
Minutes  of  the  Council.'  And  then  I  delivered  my  Rea- 
sons for  it,^  written  and  sign'd  with  my  own  Hand.  .  .  .  The 
Govr.  directed  that  it  should  be  kept  privat :  but  I  think 
Col.  Lynde  went  away  before  the  Charge  was  given.  .  .  . 
Nov.  26  Mr.  Secretary  reports  the  Discourse  with  Mr. 
Cotton   Mather  favourably ;    It   seems   they  stay'd   there 

^  Borland,  one  of  the  convicted  traders,  had  given  Sewall  to 
understand  that  the  charges  against  Dudley  were  true ;  but 
subsequently  denied  Sewall's  construction  of  his  words.  See 
Sewall's  Diary,  H.  215,  216. 


2  24  COTTON  MATHER, 

more  than  two  Hours  ;  and  Dr.  Mather  was  present.  Mr. 
Mather  neither  denys  nor  owns  the  Letter :  Think  his 
Letters  to  the  Govr.  and  that  .  .  .  not  so  inconsistent  as 
they  are  represented.  .  .  .  The  Council  invited  the  Govr. 
to  Diner  ;  .  .  .  I  drank  to  his  Excellency,  and  presented 
my  Duty  to  him.  ...  In  the  evening  by  Candle-Light  I 
fell  asleep  in  the  Council-Chamber :  and  when  I  waked 
was  surprised  to  see  the  Govr.  gone."  * 

On  the  28th,  Dudley  wished  the  vote  of  November 
I  St  published,  to  prevent  the  spreading  of  false  reports. 

**  I  said,"  writes  Sewall,  "  I  could  not  vote  to  it  because 
I  had  withdrawn  my  vote.  The  Govr.  said,  I  pray  God 
judge  between  me  and  you !  .  .  .  Lord,  do  not  depart  from 
me,  but  pardon  my  sin  ;  and  fly  to  me  in  a  way  of  favour- 
able Protection.*' 

On  the  6th  of  December,  there  came  before  the 
Council  a  bill  fixing  the  salary  of  the  new  President  of 
Harvard  College.  To  this  was  subjoined  the  following 
provision,"  which  we  should  now  call  a  "  rider  "  :  — 

"And  inasmuch  as  the  first  foundation  ...  of  that 
House  '  .  .  .  had  its  original  from  an  act  of  the  General 
Court,  made  and  passed  in  the  year  one  thousand  six 
hundred  and  fifty,  which  has  not  been  repealed  or  nulled  ; 
the  President  and  Fellows  of  the  said  College  are  directed 
...  to  regulate  themselves  according  to  the  rules  of  the 
constitution  by  that  act  prescribed." 

Dudley  and  his  Council   approved    this   bill.     The 
charter  of  1650,  thus  revised,  governs  Harvard  College 
to  the  present  day.     And  thus  it  came  about  that  Har- 
vard College,  in  spite  of  all  the  labours  and  prayers  of 
rthe  Mathers,  has  become,  for  better  or  worse,  the  per- 

*  Sewall's  Diary,  II.  199-204. 

*  Quincy,  I.  159.  3  i.e.  Harvard  College. 


HARVARD  COLLEGE,  225 

petual  nursery,  not  of  priests,  but  of  ever  more  earnest 
Protestants. 

How  the  defeated  party  took  this  matter  appears  in 
a  note  of  Sewall's  for  December  i8th  ;  — 

"Mr.  Bridge^  .  .  .  takes  Job  15.  34.^  for  his  Text; 
especially  that  clause,  —  Fire  shall  consume  the  tabernacle 
of  Bribery:  From  which  he  preach'd  an  excellent  sermon. 
.  .  .  Dr.  Mather  not  at  Lecture.     Governor  .  .  .  there." 

In  spite  of  sermons,  Leverett  was  inaugurated  on 
the  1 8th  of  January.  The  Mathers  were  not  present. 
Sewall  gives  a  mmute  account  of  the  ceremony. 

"  In  the  Library  the  Governour  found  a  Meeting  of  the 
Overseers  .  .  .  according  to  the  old  charter  of  1650.  .  .  . 
Took  the  President  by  the  hand  and  led  him  down  into  the 
Hall.  The  Books  of  the  College  Records,  Charter,  Seal 
and  Keys  were  laid  upon  a  Table  running  parallel  with  that 
next  the  Entry.  The  Govr.  sat  with  his  back  against  a 
Noble  Fire ;  •  •  .  President  sat  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Table.  .  .  .  The  Govr.  read  his  Speech  and  (as  he  told 
me)  mov'd  the  Books  in  token  of  their  Delivery.  Then  the 
President  made  a  short  Latin  Speech,  importing  the  diffi- 
culties discouraging,  and  yet  that  he  did  Accept.  .  .  . 
Had  a  very  good  Diner  upon  3  or  4  Tables: . . .  Got  home 
very  well.    Laus  Deo'^ 

On  the  23d  of  January,  Sewall  attended  a  funeral 
"When  had  gone  a  little  way,"  he  writes,  "  Mr.  Cotton 
Mather  came  up  and  went  with  me."  From  the  bury- 
ing place  they  went  to  make  a  call,  where  they  had 
some  very  pious  talk. 

1  Minister  of  the  First  Church. 

2  "For  the  congregation  of  hypocrites  shall  be  desolate,  and 
fire  shall  consume  the  tabernacles  of  bribery." 

IS 


2  26  CO  TTON  MA  THER,  j 

,1 

**  As  went  thence/*  continues  Sewall,  **  told  me  of  his 
Letter  to  the  Govr.  of  the  20th  Inst,  and  Lent  me  the  Copy. ! 
.  .  .  Dr.  Mather  it  seems  has  also  sent  a  Letter  to  the  j 
Govr.     I  wait  with  concern  to  see  what  the  issue  of  this  I 
plain  home-dealing  will  be  !  " 

Palfrey  ^  and  Quincy  ^  summarize  these  letters.  As-  | 
suming  all  the  spiritual  authority  of  their  ministry,  the  1 
Mathers  reiterate  every  charge  that  has  been  made  \ 
against  Dudley ;  and  rebuke  him  with  every  anathema  \ 
of  Puritanism.  The  letters  are  the  agonizing  death-  \ 
cry  of  old  New  England.  \ 

Two  or  three  more  notes  of  Sewall's  tell  what  this  ! 
"  plain  home- dealing  "  seemed  to  the  victors.  _j 

"Jany  31.  Mr.  Pemberton  .  .  .  talk'd  to  me  very 
warmly  about  Mr.  Cotton  Mather's  Letter  to  the  Govr.,  ■ 
seemed  to  resent  it,  and  expect  the  Govr.  should  animad-  j 
vert  upon  him.  Said  if  he  were  as  the  Govr.  he  would  hum-  i 
ble  him  though  it  cost  him  his  head;  Speaking  with  great  ; 
vehemency  just  as  I  parted  with  him  at  his  Gat6.  The  \ 
Lord  apear  for  the  Help  of  his  people.  —  Feb.  2.  .  .  .  Some-  i 
body  said,  .  .  .  That  no  man  was  admitted  to  be  a  Captain  j 
without  giving  the  D.  of  Marlborough,  or  his  Dutchess  five  ■ 
hundred  Guinys :  the  Govr.  took  it  up,  and  said,  What  is  ' 
that !  Speaking  in  a  favourable,  diminutive  way.  And  said  \ 
that  there  had  not  been  any  admitted  these  thousand  years  \ 
but  in  a  way  like  that;  mentioning  his  own  experience  in  ! 
the  Isle  of  Wight.  His  Excellency  seems  hereby  to  jus-  | 
tify  himself  against  those  wlio  charge  him  with  Bribery.  —  ^ 
Febr.  5.  Mr.  Colman  preaches  the  Lecture  .  .  .  from  ! 
Gal.  5.  25.  If  we  live  in  the  Spirit,  let  we  also  Walk  in  the  \ 
Spirit.  Spake  of  Envy  and  Revenge  as  the  Complexion  : 
and  Condemnation   of  the  Devil  .  .  .  'Tis  reckoned  he  : 

lash'd  Dr.  Mather  and  Mr.  Cotton  Mather  and  Mr.  Bridge  ; 

i 
1  Vol.  III.  pp.  295,  296.  2  Vol.  I.  pp.  201,  202.         - 


JOSEPH  DUDLEY,  227 

for  what  they  have  written,  preached  and  pray'd  about  the 
present  Contest  with  the  Govr." 

Next  day,  after  a  fortnight's  waiting,  Joseph  Dudley 
sent  his  answer  to  the  Mathers.*  With  Scriptures  as 
good  as  theirs,  he  recommended  self-scrutiny  to  them. 
And  he  went  on  thus  :  — 

**  Every  one  can  see  through  the  pretence,  and  is  able  to 
account  for  the  spring  of  these  letters,  and  how  they  would 
have  been  prevented,  without  easing  any  grievances  you 
complain  of.  ...  I  desire  you  will  keep  your  station,  and 
let  fifty  or  sixty  good  ministers,  your  equals  in  the  province, 
have  a  share  in  the  government  of  the  College  ...  as  well 
as  yourselves.  ...  I  am  an  honest  man,  and  have  lived 
religiously  these  forty  years  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  min- 
isters in  New  England,  and  your  wrath  against  me  is  cruel, 
and  will  not  be  justified.  .  .  .  The  College  must  be  dis- 
posed against  the  opinion  of  all  the  ministers  in  New  Eng- 
land except  yourselves,  or  the  governor  torn  in  pieces. 
This  is  the  view  I  have  of  your  inclination." 

And  this  is  the  view  posterity  has  accepted,  with 
what  justice  the  records  I  have  quoted  may  help  to 
show.  While  the  Mathers  were  reading  this  letter, 
Samuel  Sewall,  "  in  the  uper  Chamber  of  the  North- 
East  end  of  the  House,  fastening  the  Shutters  next  the 
Street,"  was  holding  a  solemn  fast.  But  though  he 
prayed  for  so  many  things  that  the  record  covers  a 
closely  printed  page,  I  found  my  eye  caught  chiefly  by 
one  passage  :  — 

"  Save  the  Town,  College,  Province  from  Invasions  of 
Enemies  open,  Secret  and  from  false  Brethren:  Defend 
the  Purity  of  Worship.     Save  Connecticut."  ^ 

1  Palfrey,  III.  297. 

2  Diary,  II.  217.     10  February,  1707-8. 


XI. 


Cotton  Mather's  Private  Life  to  the  Death  of 
HIS  Second  Wife. 

1707-1713. 

For  the  next  six  years  Joseph  Dudley  remained  Gov- 
ernor of  Massachusetts.  His  quarrel  with  the  Mathers 
seems  never  to  have  been  settled.  Throughout  these 
years,  Cotton  Mather  was  busier  than  ever  in  his  pas- 
toral work,  and  his  endless  plans  for  doing  good  in 
general;  and  Increase  Mather,  growing  old,  and  not 
gaining  buoyancy  of  temper,  preached  and  prayed, — 
not  a  little  about  the  good  old  time.  With  public 
offices  and  with  the  College,  which  prospered  under  the 
care  of  Leverett,  neither  seems  to  have  had  much  to 
do.  So  the  course  of  public  affairs  has  little  to  do  with 
us.  In  his  relations  with  the  General  Court,  Dudley 
seems,  in  his  later  days,  to  have  been  less  aggressive. 
The  war  went  on  with  varying  success :  Port  Royal 
was  taken  in  1710,  but  there  were  disasters  later,  Indian 
massacres  all  along.  In  fifty  years,  Hutchinson  esti- 
mated,!  the  population  did  not  double  :  in  1 709,  Dud- 
ley estimated  it  at  about  fifty  thousand,  increasing  at 
the  rate  of  a  thousand  a  year ;  Hutchinson  thinks  that 
from  five  to  six  thousand  of  the  youth  of  the  country 

1  Palfrey,  III.  303. 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  229 

fell  in  the  wars  which  ended  with  the  welcome  peace 
of  Utrecht  in  1713.  Meanwhile,  according  to  Palfrey,^ 
a  new  generation  was  growing  up  under  the  Provincial 
charter,  far  more  loyal  to  the  Crown  than  the  old 
independent  Dissenters  of  the  Colony. 

In  this  chapter  our  business  will  be  to  follow  the 
private  life  of  Cotton  Mather  until  1713. 

Cotton  Mather's  diary  for  1 708  is  not  preserved. 
But  in  the  collection  of  the  American  Antiquarian 
Society  is  a  copy  in  his  handwriting,  with  the  date 
1708,  of  Swift's  burlesque  prophecy  of  the  death  of 
Partridge,  etc.,  which  Cotton  Mather  seems  to  have 
taken  in  sober  earnest.  In  Sewall  I  find  but  one  note 
worth  recording  here.  In  June  Mr.  Bromfield  received 
an  anonymous  letter,  "putting  him  upon  enquiring 
after  Debaucheries  at  North's,  the  Exchange  Tavern," 
and  urging  him  to  ask  Sewall's  advice.  Cotton  Math- 
er's constant  eagerness  to  suppress  disorder,  his  inti- 
mate relations  with  Bromfield  and  Sewall,  and  his 
frequent  practice  of  "  doing  good  "  anonymously,  make 
it  not  unlikely  that  this  letter  came  from  him.  I  can- 
not refrain  from  citing  one  more  note  of  Sewall's, 
though  —  a  little  glimpse  of  manners :  "  Govr.  calls 
and  smokes  a  pipe  with  my  wife  at  night  9r.  i." 

Sewall's  diary  for  1709  gives  a  few  glimpses  of  the 
Mathers,  with  whom  his  relations  were  now  cordially 
intimate. 

"  June  22.  .  .  .  Going  to  visit  sick  Mr.  Gerrish  ...  I 
met  Dr.  Mather,  who  tells  me  that  yesterday,  he  was  70 
years  old.—  Octobr.  6.  .  .  .  Mr.  C.  Mather  preaches  from 
Prov.  14.  14.     Backslider  in  heart  shall  be  filled  with  his 

1  Vol.  III.  p.  302. 


230  CO TTON  MA  THER. 

own  Ways.  Mention'd  the  indulgence  of  Adonijak ;  the 
prophet  Micajah ;  not  the  prophet,  but  the  King  was  hurt 
by  his  estrangement.'* 

There  are  glimpses  of  Dudley,  too,  giving  no  new 
traits;  and  on  January  28th,  this  note:  — 

"  The  Govr.  told  me  of  News  from  Albany,  as  if  the 
French  of  Canaday  were  coming  against  us.  The  good 
Lord  stop  them !  " 

Cotton  Mather's  diary  for  1 709  ^  is  on  the  whole  not 
noteworthy.  On  the  20th  of  June  he  makes  an  entry 
that  is  typical  of  the  year  :  — 

"  I  am  so  full  of  employments ;  and  in  such  a  happy  way 
of  continually  every  day  doing  a  variety  of  services,  which 
yett  I  do  not  ask  to  have  remembered,  that  I  have  not 
the  Leisure,  which  else  I  might  have  to  replenish  these 
memorials." 

Little  Sam  had  a  fever.  Another  son,  Nathaniel, 
was  bom  to  him  on  the  i6th  of  May,  and  died  on  the 
24th  of  November.  I  find  but  two  other  notes  worth 
recording.     In  March,  Mather  was 

"assaulted  with  Solicitations  [from  Hell]  to  look  upon  the 
whole  Christian  Religion  as — [I  dare  not  mention  what!]'* 
but  resolved  to  "  Beleeve  Him  wise  and  Just  and  good,  and 
confess  myself  unable  to  Judge  of  His  Dispensations,  but 
Refer  all  unto  a  Time  when  He  shall  please  to  entertain 
His  people  in  another  world  with  a  Discovery  of  what  He 
has  done  and  meant  in  His  former  Dealings." 

At  this  time  Mather  was  very  poor,  he  remarks,  — 
literally  in  rags.  In  September,  the  other  ministers 
dined  with  the  "  Wicked  Governor." 

^  In  possession  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society. 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  23 1 

"I,"  writes  Cotton  Mather,  "have  by  my  provoking 
plainness  and  Freedom  in  telHng  this  Ahab  of  his  wicked- 
ness procured  myself  to  be  left  out  of  his  Invitations.  I 
rejoiced  in  my  Liberty  from  the  Temptations  with  which 
they  were  encumbred  while  they  were  eating  of  his  dain- 
ties, and  durst  not  reprove  him.  .  .  .  And  considering  the 
power  and  malice  of  my  enemies,  I  thought  it  proper  for 
me  to  be  this  day  Fasting  in  Secret  before  the  Lord.** 

At  the  end  of  the  diary  is  a  long  account  of  how  he 
is  accustomed  on  rising  every  morning  to  enter  in  a 
book  "  Good  Devices  '*  for  the  day  :  of  them  we  shall . 
hear  more  by  and  by.  The  volume  closes,  as  usual, 
with  notes  of  the  course  of  his  preaching  for  the  year : 
among  which  is  one  telling  how  when  his  sermon  was 
three  quarters  preached  his  meeting  was  broken  up 
by  a  fire,  and  how  when  the  congregation  returned 
he  began  afresh  and  preached  a  brand-new  sermon 
extempore. 

His  diary  for  17 10  is  not  preserved.  Sewall  tells  a 
little  of  what  happened  to  the  Mathers.  On  the  3d 
of  April  there  was  difficulty  in  finding  a  minister  to 
preach  the  election  sermon  :  and  though  Mr.  Pember- 
ton  finally  agreed  to  do  it,  his  temper  —  a  very  excit- 
able one  —  was  up.  So  when  "  word  was  brought  that 
Dr.  Mather  was  chosen  to  preach  the  Artillery  Ser- 
mon, Mr.  Pemberton  said  Must  choose  agen."  Several 
notes  of  Se wall's  this  year  show  the  infirmity  of  Pem- 
berton* s  temper :  the  divine  had  an  unconfortable  way 
of  accosting  his  parishioner  in  public  places  and  up- 
braiding him  at  the  top  of  his  voice. 

Towards  the  end  of  the  year  Cotton  Mather  received 
from  the  University  of  Glasgow  the  degree  of  Doctor 


232  COTTON  MATHER.  \ 

of  Divinity.  Even  in  Samuel  Mather's  lifeless  book  we  \ 
can  see  how  grateful  the  good  man  found  this  honour :  i 
for  one  thing  he  immediately  began  to  wear  a  signet-  \ 
ring  bearing  "  a  Tree  with  Psal.  i.  3  ^  written  under  it ;  i 
and  about  it  Glascua  Rigavit^  The  Cast  of  his  Eye  j 
upon  this,  constantly  provoked  him  to  pray.  ,  ,  .  O  ^ 
GODy  make  vie  a  very  fruitful  Tree^  •  But  he  was  not  ' 
permitted  to  enjoy  his  title  unmolested.  One  John  ; 
Banister  wrote  thereupon  the  following  verses.  ■ 

"On  C.  Mr's.  Diploma.  ; 

"  The  mad  enthusiast,  thirsting  after  fame, 
By  endless  volum'ns  thought  to  raise  a  name. 
With  undigested  trash  he  throngs  the  Press ; 
Thus  striving  to  be  greater,  he's  the  less,  , 

But  he,  in  spite  of  infamy,  writes  on,  ] 

And  draws  new  Cullies  in  to  be  undone.  | 

Warm'd  with  paternal  vanity,  he  trys 
For  new  Subscriptions,  while  the  Embryo  [his  two  vol-  j 
urans]  *  lyes  \ 

Neglected  —  Parkhurst  *  says,  Satis  fecistiy  \ 

My  belly's  full  of  your  Magnalia  Christi. 
Your  crude  Divinity,  and  History  ■ 

Will  not  with  a  censorious  age  agree.  ^ 

Daz'd  with  the  stoPn  title  of  his  Sire,^ 
To  be  a  Doctor  he  is  all  on  fire  ;  % 

1  "And  he  shall  be  like  a  tree  planted  by  the  rivers  of  water,  j 
that  bringeth  forth  his  fruit  in  his  season ;  his  leaf  also  shall  not 
wither;  and  whatsoever  he  doeth  shall  prosper." 

2  Glasgow  has  watered  it. 

8  See  S.  Mather's  Life,  pp.  74-77.         *  "  Biblia  Americana." 

5  The  publisher  of  the  "Magnalia.'' 

6  Increase  Mather,  it  will  be  remembered,  was  made  Doctor 
of  Divinity  under  the  Harvard  charter  of  1692,  subsequently  dis- 
approved by  the  King.     See  pages  135-137. 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  233 

Would  after  him  the  Sacrilege  commit 

But  that  the  Keeper's  [Leverett],  care  doth  him  affright. 

To  Britain's  Northern  Clime  in  haste  he  sends, 

And  begs  an  Independent  boon  from  Presbyterian  friends; 

Rather  than  be  without,  he  'd  beg  it  of  the  Fiends. 

Facetious  George  brought  him  this  Liberde 

To  write  C.  Mather  first  and  then  D.  D."  ^ 

On  the  25  th  of  November  Increase  Mather  laid  this 
libel  before  Sewall.  On  the  28th,  Sewall  had  Banister 
and  others  before  him  in  consequence,  and,  in  spite  of 
a  letter  from  Cotton  Mather  in  favor  of  Banister, 
imposed  a  fine  on  him.  This  greatly  stirred  up  Mr. 
Pemberton,  who  had  lately  been  abused  by  a  certain 
Captain  Martin,  against  whom  no  proceedings  had 
been  taken. 

"Mr.  Pemberton,"  writes  Sewall,  "with  extraordinary 
Vehemency  said,  (capering  with  his  feet)  If  the  Mathers 
ordered  it,  I  would  shoot  him  thorow  I  told  him  he  was 
in  a  passion.  He  said  he  was  not  in  a  Passion.  I  said,  it 
was  so  much  the  worse.  .  .  .  The  truth  is  I  was  surpris'd 
to  see  my  self  insulted  with  such  extraordinary  Fierceness, 
by  my  Pastor,  just  when  I  had  been  vindicating  two  wor- 
thy Embassadors  of  Christ  (his  own  usual  Phrase)  from 
most  villanous  Libels.  .  .  .  These  Things  made  me  pray 
Earnestly  .  .  .  that  God  would  vouchsafe  to  be  my  Shep- 
herd, and  .  .  .  bring  me  safely  to  his  Heavenly  Fold." 

And  the  same  evening  Sewall  visited  Madam  Pem- 
berton, and  gave  the  nurse  three  shillings ;  which  did 
not  prevent  Mr.  Pemberton  from  giving  out  next  Lord's 
day  a  most  invidious  psalm. ^ 

1  Sewall's  Letter-Book,  I.  407.     Cf  Diary,  II.  290-295. 

2  For  all  this  matter,  see  Sewall's  Diary,  II.  290-295. 


I 

I 

234  COTTON  MATHER. 

I 
The  only  other  note  of  SewalPs  I  have  recorded  for  j 

this  year  runs  as  follows  :  —  ] 

"Mid-week,  Jany.  31.  Went  and  heard  Mr.  Bridge,  { 
and  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  pray  and  preach,  at  the  said  Dr's  ■ 
House.  .  .  .  Dr.  Mathers  [Text  was]  The  whole  world  1 
lyes  in  Wickedness.  Had  Cake  and  Butter  and  Cheese,  j 
with  good  Drinks,  before  parting." 

In  Sewall's  diary  for  1711, 1  find  little  that  concerns  i 
us.  The  Mathers  were  as  busy  as  ever.  On  the  31st  ' 
of  May,  Mr.  Wadsworth  gave  a  dinner  for  the  Cover-  1 
nor,  to  which  he  invited  both  the  Mathers :  and  both  ; 
came,  —  a  fact  which  throws  a  little  fresh  light  on  \ 
Cotton  Mather's  secret  fast  in  September,  1709.^ 

Cotton  Mather's  diary  for  1711^  is  different  from  ^ 
all  the  preceding  ones.  Those,  as  I  have  said,  are  not  ■ 
the  original  copies,  but  abridgements  made  by  him-  i 
self;  rather  annual  autobiographies  than  diaries  proper.  | 
This  volume  and  the  six  others  that  remain  are  origi-  \ 
nal  copies,  hastily  written  from  day  to  day,  and  little  j 
revised.  They  differ  in  character  from  the  others,  too.  ; 
Instead  of  being  records  of  what  has  happened,  they  ; 
are  generally  daily  entries  of  good  devised  for  each  - 
day,  —  with  the  letters  "G.  D."  prefixed.  Now  and  ; 
then  he  inserts  a  passage  that  he  thinks  worth  remem-  | 
bering.  So  we  have  now,  for  the  years  whose  records  \ 
are  preserved,  a  daily  note  of  what  he  means  to  do,  ; 
and  occasional  notes  of  what  has  actually  been  done.  \ 
One  troublesome  fact  about  the  diary  for  1 7 1 1  is  that  ■ 
he  usually  enters  there  only  the  days  of  the  week,  leav- 

^  See  page  231. 

2  In  possession  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society.  ■ 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  235 

ing  the  month  to  be  calculated  as  best  it  may.  The 
truth  seems  to  be  that,  about  this  time,  he  concluded 
that  he  had  wasted  too  much  time  on  the  records  of 
his  life  :  there  were  other  things  better  worth  doing. 

His  birthday  note,  with  which  this  volume,  like  all 
the  rest,  begins,  shows  this  state  of  mind.  Hereafter 
he  will  keep  no  separate  book  of  good  devices :  they 
shall  be  entered  in  his  regular  diary.  He  had  devised 
a  set  of  questions  to  ask  himself  each  day  :  on  Sunday, 
for  example,  he  asked  what  he  should  do  as  a  pastor ;  on 
Monday,  what  he  should  do  for  his  family ;  and  so  on. 

"  There  is  no  need  of  Repeating  here,"  he  writes,  "  The 
questions  assigned  for  each  day  of  the  Week.  My  answer 
to  each  of  them  will  be  a  Good  Devised,  for  which  a  G.  D. 
will  be  the  Distinction  in  these  Memorials." 

Daily  good  devices  fill  the  pages  of  this  volume, 
which  is  twice  as  thick  as  any  of  the  preceding  ones. 
Perhaps  his  most  curious  note  hereabouts  is  this :  — 

*'  Having  some  Epistolar  Conversation  with  Mr.  De 
Foe  I  would  in  my  letters  unto  him,  excite  him  to  apply 
himself  unto  the  work  of  collecting  and  publishing  an 
History  of  the  persecutions  which  the  Dissenters  have 
undergone  from  the  Ch.  of  E.  — And  give  him  some  Di- 
rections about  the  work.  It  may  be  a  work  of  manifold 
usefulness." 

Somewhat  later,  curious  reflections  follow  a  fit  of 
cholera  morbus  and  a  morning  cough  :  the  latter  moves 
him  to  ejaculate,^"  Oh  !  that  I  may  always  cast  up 
and  throw  off,  whatever  may  be  inimical  to  the  Health 
of  my  Soul !  "  J)On  the  2d  of  October  there  was  a 
great  fire  in  Boston,  which  aroused  proper  reflections 
in  Cotton  Mather;  and  which  Increase  Mather  attrib- 


236  COTTON  MATHER. 

uted  to  the  growing  profanation  of  the  Sabbath.  Later 
in  the  same  month  we  find  Cotton  Mather  writing  to  : 
Sir  Richard  Blackmore  and  to  Dr.  Watts,  whose  hymns  , 
he  greatly  admired.  At  intervals  through  the  year  he  ,; 
mentions  his  cousin,  Eunice  WilHams,  a  captive  among  \ 
the  Indians,  whose  mode  of  Hfe  she  ultimately  adopted.  ; 
At  Christmas  he  was  greatly  disturbed  by  some  young  1 
people  of  both  sexes  belonging  to  his  flock,  who  had  : 
"  a  Frolick,  a  Revelling  Feast,  and  Ball,  which  discovers  i 
their  corruption."     And  a  month  later  he  writes  :  —       j 

"  Fast.  ...  I  took  the  catalogue  of  the  Books  which  I  \ 
have  been  the  Author  of.  The  Number  in  the  Catalogue  j 
is  Two  hundred  and  five.  On  each  of  the  Titles  I  made  a  ! 
pause.  And  I  obliged  Every  one  of  them,  to  suggest  ; 
unto  me  some  Remarkable  Article  of  Humiliation,  which  , 
I  thereupon  with  an  Abased  Soul  mentioned  before  the  ; 
Lord.'* 

But  the  most  interesting  notes  this  year  concern  his 
family.     Early  in  the  year  he  notes  a  good  device  not  1 
to  use  his  influence  against  a  merchant  who  has  injured  \ 
him.  i 

"  No  sooner  had  I  written  these  words,"  he  goes  on,  > 

**  but  there  was  a  pretty  occurrence  in  the  Family  which  j 

carried  with  it  a  fine  picture  and  Emblem  ...  of  the  Dis-  - 

1  position  which  I  am  Endeavoring.     My  little  son  Sammy  j 

;  did  not  carry  it  so  kindly  to  his  little  sister  Lizzy  as  I  would  j 

I  have  had  him.     I  chid  him  for  his  crossness,  and  gave  her  \ 

\  a  piece  of  potne-citron^  but  would  give  none  to  him,  to  pun-  ; 

-  ish  him  for  being  so  cross  to  her.     I  had  no  sooner  turned 

my  back  but  the  good-conditioned  creature  fell  into  Tears  \ 

at  this  punishment  of  her  little  Brother,  and  gave  to  him  a  j 

part  of  what  I  had  bestowed  upon  her."  i 

Somewhat  later,  he  writes  that  his  son  Increase,  now  i 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  237 

about  twelve  years  old,  is  giving  him  trouble.  Later 
still,  he  writes  that  the  time  is  come  for  his  daughters 
to  be  "  fixed  "  in  "  the  opificial  and  Beneficial  mysteries 
wherein  they  should  be  well  instructed."  Katy,  he 
:-  decides,  shall  be  taught  medicine ;  the  inclinations  of 
Nibby  and  Nancy  shall  be  consulted  before  he  reaches 
a  decision  about  them.  Another  daughter,  Jerusha, 
was  bom  this  year.  But  towards  the  end  of  the  year 
Increase  is  most  in  his  mind. 

"My  Son  Increase/*  he  writes,  **  now  being  of  Age  for 
/  it,  I  would  often  call  him  into  my  Study,  especially  on  the 
Lord's-day  Evenings,  and  make  him  sitt  with  me,  and  hear 
from  me  such  Documents  of  piety,  and  of  Discretion,  as  I 
shall  endeavor  to  suit  him,  and  to  shape  him  withal."  A  lit- 
tle later :  "It  may  be  of  excellent  consequence  to  my  son 
Increase  if  he  may  turn  into  Latin,  after  the  rate  of  one 
Question  p.  day,  my  Supplies  fro?n  the  Tower  of  David, 
It  may  also  supply  me  with  an  Engine,  which  after  my 
bestowing  further  Additions  on  it,  may  do  inexpressible 
good  in  other  Countreys."  And  his  last  daily  note  for  the 
year  runs  thus  :  "  G.  D.  Now  my  son  Increase  is  arrived 
unto  the  exercise  of  making  Themes,  at  the  School,  I  would 
make  this  become  an  Engine  of  piety  for  him  ;  and  I 
would  procure  such  subjects  to  be  assigned  unto  him,  as 
may  most  assist  the  study  of  goodness  and  virtue  in  him," 

An  active,  busy  year  this  seems  to  have  been ;  less 
morbid  than  most.  His  final  summary  of  it  is  perhaps 
worth  recording :  — 

"  Thus  I  am  come  to  the  end  of  another  year,  over- 
whelmed with  confusion,  when  I  look  back  on  the  Sin  and 
Sloth  constantly  attending  me  in  it.  It  is  true  I  have  been 
helped  by  Heaven  this  year.  To  Lett  not  One  Day  pass, 
without  Contriving  and  Recording,  some  Inventions  to  do 


2^8  COTTON  MATHER. 

Good ;  And  those  which  have  pass'd  thro'  my  pen  are  but 
a  few  of  the  projections  which  I  have  had:  ...  To  lett 
not  One  Day  pass,  without  actually  expending  something  of 
my  Revenues  ...  on  pious  uses  :  To  write  some  Illus- 
trations for  the  most  part  Every  Day;  doubtless  ...  I 
have  this  year  added  unto  the  Biblia  A?nericana  .  .  .  more 
than  a  thousand  :  To  preach  many  Sermons  .  .  . :  To 
publish  near  as  many  books  as  there  have  been  Months  in 
the  year:  ...  To  make  many  hundreds  of  Visits;  but 
never  One,  without  some  Explicit  Essays  or  Desires  to  Do 
Good  in  it :  To  manage  some  scores  of  Correspondencies  ; 
and  ...  to  propose  the  Service  of  my  Glorious  Lord  in 
every  one  of  them:  ...  To  read  over  many  Scores  of 
Books,  and  gather  into  my  Quotidiana  from  them :  etc.  etc. 
etc.  But  after  all,  o  my  dear  Saviour,  I  stand  in  infinite 
need  of  thy  Sacrifice.  I  have  been  a  most  unprofitable 
Servant.    God  be  merciful  to  me  a  Sinner  1" 

Mather's  diary  for  1 7 1 2  is  not  preserved.  In  Sew- 
all's  I  find  nothing  especial  about  him,  except  that  he 
went  to  Commencement.  From  a  note  in  Quincy,i  it 
appears  that  a  new  Catalogue  of  the  College  was  printed 
at  this  time.  Leverett  asked  Dudley  if  Mather  had 
ever  apologized  for  the  "  undutiful  "  letter  of  1707  :  if 
not,  Leverett  supposed  Cotton  Mather's  new  title  had 
better  not  be  recognized  in  the  Catalogue.  But  Dud- 
ley told  him  not  to  leave  out  the  title  on  any  such 
account.  And  in  Harvard  Catalogues  ever  since  Cotton 
Mather  has  been  Doctor  of  Divinity.  In  the  Mather 
Papers  ^  are  preserved  some  of  his  letters  this  year  to 
John  and  to  Wait  Winthrop  :  they  show  him  deeply  in- 
terested in  the  European  news  of  the  day,  which  chiefly 
concerns  the  approaching  Peace  of  Utrecht.     And  Sib- 

1  Vol.  I.  p.  520.  2  Pages  407-415. 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  239 

ley  names  fifteen  books  published  by  Cotton  Mather 
during  the  year. 

So  we  come  to  his  diary  for  1713,^  an  eventful  year 
in  Cotton  Mather's  domestic  life.  At  the  very  begin- 
ning of  the  year,  we  find  him  in  much  disturbance  of 
mind  because  some  of  his  flock  had  been  inspired  by 
Satan  with  the  idea  of  starting  a  new  meeting.  He  ^ 
did  his  best  to  reason  with  them,  but  to  little  purpose. 
And  towards  the  middle  of  March  he  writes :  — 

"  I  ought  to  .  .  .  grow  in  my  Thankfulness  to  the  glori- 
ous Lord,  in  that  1  have  my  mind  preserved  from  Hypo- 
chondriac Maladies,  which,  considering  my  Studies  and 
Sorrowes,  tis  a  wonder,  they  have  not  utterly  overwhelmed 
me.  The  view  I  have  of  some  other  men,  unhinged  and 
ruined  that  way,  very  much  awakens  my  gratitude." 

One  of  the  other  men  in  question  was  probably  the 
Rev.  Ebenezer  Pemberton.  But  a  note  on  the  24th  of 
March  shows  trials  nearer  home  :  — 

"  Still  my  aged  parent  must  be  the  object  of  my  cares  ; 
To  make  him  easy  under  his  Resentments  of  the  proceed- 
ings about  the  New  Church ;  and  to  procure  him  Releefs 
against  Bodily  Distempers  that  somewhat  incommode 
him ;  and  to  gett  his  mind  raised  unto  the  points  of  Resig- 
nation to  God  and  Satisfaction  in  His  Will,  which  become 
us  in  the  Suburbs  of  the  Heavenly  World."  —  "  God  calls 
me,"  he  writes  a  few  days  later,  *'  in  an  extraordinary  man- 
ner to  be  armed  for  the  Trials  which  I  may  undergo  in  a 
church,  breaking  all  to  peeces,  thro*  the  Impertinencies  of 
a  proud  crew,  that  must  have  pues  for  their  despicable 
Families." 

So  he  prayed  and  fasted,  and  had  his  son  Increase 
^  In  possession  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society 


240  COTTON  MATHER. 

come  in  and  pray  too.  Not  long  afterwards  he  real- 
ized that  he  was  growing  too  impatient  of  slights,  and 
resolved  to  govern  his  temper. 

In  April  he  was  still  in  high  excitement. 

"  There  is  one  point  in  my  Conversation,"  he  writes, 
early  in  the  month,  **  wherein  I  must  press  after  much 
greater  Sanctity  and  purity;  and  have  my  Behaviour  in  it 
more  governed  by  that  Reflexion,  The  Eye  of  the  Great 
God  is  now  upon  me!  .  .  .  And  I  must  go  mourning  to 
my  grave,  in  the  sense  of  the  miscarriages,  in  this  point, 
wherewith  His  Holy  Eyes  have  seen  me  chargeable." 

A  little  later  comes  the  vigil  in  which  he  begged  to 
know  the  meaning  of  the  descent  from  the  invisible 
world  so  many  years  before.* 

-Education  is  the  next  thing  in  his  mind.  Increase, 
it  is  clear,  must  be  "  applied  unto  Saccular  Business," 
and  he  must  cry  to  Heaven  thereabout.  The  tutors  at 
the  College  must  be  reminded  that  they  ought  to  "  in- 
still good  principles  into  their  pupils,  and  be  concerned 
for  their  Orthodox  and  Religious,  as  well  as  Learned 
education."  And  a  little  later,  he  notes  that  he  has 
"litt  on  a  person"  to  restrain  "profaneness  in  a  con- 
siderable number  of  Unruly  children  on  the  Lord's  day 
in  our  Congregation."  AhnTrt^thi<;  timp  f^^tu^P^^  the 
hvpochondriac  notion,  that  he  was  near  his  en^^  whirb 
oTfenassailed  him ;  he  must  select  guardians  for  his 
children.  A  little  later,  he  determined  to  write  phy- 
sicians "  to  obtain  for  me,  as  much  as  may  be,  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Botanicks  of  the  countrey  :  as  also  of 
rare  cures  or  cases  occurring  to  them."  And  a  little 
later  still  comes  this  :  — 

1  See  page  123. 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  241 

"  My  poor  son  Increase !  Oh  !  the  Distress  of  mind 
with  which  I  must  lett  fall  my  daily  Admonitions  upon  him, 
even  with  a  continual  Dropping,  especially  on  these  Two 
points  :  Conversion  to  God,  in  a  Sincere  compliance  with 
His  Covenant:  And,  The  Care  of  Spending  Time  so  as  to 
give  a  good  Account  of  it." 

Then  the  new  church  troubled  him  again  :  — 

*'  When  any  persons  .  .  .  fall  into  errors  and  evils,  and 
great  miscarriages,  I  must  keep  a  guard  of  meekness  and 
wisdom  on  the  expression  of  my  zeal.  .  .  .  Violent,  Bois- 
terous, Intemperate  Expressions  .  .  .  will  not  work  the 
Righteousness  of  God.  I  am  afraid  lest  I  am  sometimes  too 
vehement."  In  answer  to  this  resolution  the  Lord  helped 
him  to  treat  "  the  swarming  Brethren  '*  in  an  obliging  man- 
ner,—  *' the  best  thing  I  can  do  to  prevent  the  wiles  of 
Satan."  A  few  days  later,  "  in  a  wicked  book  I  readd  a 
fling  at  clergymen,  as  a  Revengeful  generation  of  men, 
who  never  Forgive  such  as  have  offended  them.  I  do 
not  remember,  for  my  own  part,  that  ever  I  designed 
the  Revenge  of  an  Injury  in  my  life.  However,  this  Ven- 
emous  Fling,  shall  quicken  my  Watchfulness,  upon  this 
Article." 

Within  a  few  days  he  had  a  chance  to  quicken  it :  — 

"  G.  D.  There  are  Knotts  of  Riotous  Young  Men  in  the 
Town.  On  purpose  to  insult  piety  they  will  come  under 
my  Window  in  the  middle  of  the  Night  and  sing  profane 
and  filthy  Songs.  The  last  night  they  did  so,  and  fell  upon 
people  with  clubs  taken  off  my  wood-pile.  Tis  high-time, 
to  call  in  the  help  of  the  Government  .  .  .  for  the  .  .  . 
suppressing  of  these  disorders." 

On  the  I  St  of  July,  he  took  his  son  Increase  to 
Commencement.^     On  the  4th,  he  held  a  vigil  for  the 

1  Sewall's  Diary,  II.  390. 
16 


242  COTTON  MATHER. 

*'  Impurities  which  my  life  has  been  filled  withal.  .  .  . 
From  the  Depths  I  cried  unto  the  Lord,  for  his  grace  to  be 
given  unto  my  children:  particularly  my  son  Increase." 

The  youth,  now  about  fourteen,  was  beginning  to 
show  himself  what  he  ultimately  proved,  —  a  sadly 
riotous  young  man.  And  this  may  have  been  what 
prompted  another  good  device,  a  few  weeks  later. 

*^  I  have  shown  too  much  Respect  unto  Wicked  Men  in 
my  Conversation.  .  .  .  Though  my  Intention  has  been  to 
show  all  Gentleness  to  all  men  .  .  .  yett  I  doubt,  less  Free- 
dom with  such  Wretches,  less  Familiarity  with  such  Devils, 
would  have  been  better." 

So  the  year  goes  on,  his  family  more  and  more  on 
his  mind.  On  the  birthdays  of  his  children,  he  re- 
solves, he  will 

**  not  only  discourse  very  proper  and  pungent  things  .  .  . 
relating  to  their  eternal  Interests,  but  also  oblige  them  to 
consider ;  first,  what  is  their  main  Errand  into  the  World; 
and  then,  what  they  have  done  of  that  Errand,  And  such 
of  them  as  are  old  enough  to  Write,  shall  give  me  some 
Written  Thoughts  upon  these  things." 

His  negro  servant  was  best  governed  by  reason  :  he 
would  assay  to  reason  him  into  good  behaviour.^  His 
"  aged  parent "  —  the  phrase  by  which  he  names  his 
father  from  this  time  on  —  was  out  of  order. 

"  I  would  persuade  him  to  a  frequent  use  of  the  sal  vola- 
tile, which  God  has  blessed  unto  me  for  more  than  ordi- 

1  In  the  library  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society  is  an  in- 
teresting memorandum  of  the  conditions  on  which,  a  little  later, 
this  negro,  Onesimus,  bought  his  freedom.  He  was  to  see  that 
his  place  was  properly  supplied,  and  to  turn  up  every  day 
accordingly. 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  243 

nary  Benefit,  and  I  would  prevent  him  with  a  Bottle  of  it." 
And  when  the  remedy  worked,  he  resolved  "  mightily  to 
double  my  diligence,  especially  in  Afternoon-Studies,  for 
the  Dispatch  of  those  things  I  would  fain  finish  before 
I  Dy." 

Meanwhile  Increase  was  alwa)^  on  his  jnind :  one 
day  he  made  him  read  the  life  of  a  pious  youth ;  again, 
while  seeking  a  place  for  him,  he  would  have  him 
"  preserve  learning,"  and  would  daily  inquire  if  he  has 
made  secret  prayers ;  a  little  later,  when  the  youth  had 
blown  up  himself  and  his  sister  Lizzy  with  gunpowder, 

**  I  would  improve  this  occasion  to  inculcate  Instructions 
of  piety  in  them  and  the  rest ;  Especially  with  Relation  to 
their  Danger  of  Eternal  Burnings.  Cressy  ^  must  also 
employ  the  leisure  which  this  had  occasioned  for  him,  in  the 
most  profitable  manner"  ;  there  had  been  lately  an  oppor- 
tunity **  to  gett  .  .  .  Increase  cultivated  with  many  points 
of  polite  conversation,  in  his  Evening-Hours."  Another 
note  runs  thus:  "  Oh  !  Why  don't  I  in  my  Family  more 
livelily  keep  up  the  Temper  and  Conduct  of  a  parent  ex- 
pecting to  be  Speedily  taken  from  his  Family  ? "  Another 
still:  "My  youngest  little  daughter*  is  a  marvellous 
Witty,  Ready,  Forward  Child  " :  he  would  set  the  others 
to  teaching  her  maxims  of  piety.  Towards  the  end  of 
September,  the  death  of  an  "  aged  and  pious  Matron  (the 
First-born  of  this  Town)  .  .  .  affords  mean  opportunity  to 
discourse  with  my  mother,  upon  Ijer  preparation." 

A  little  later,  he  was  trying  to  get  Increase  a  place 
with  a  religious  merchant,  in  good  business ;  and 
selecting  guardians  for  his  children;  and  praying  to 
the  Lord  that  He  would  return  to  them  what  their 
father  had  spent  in  charity. 

1  Increase.  2  Jerusha,  born  in  1711. 


244  COTTON  MATHER. 

I  find  but  three  other  notes  before  October  worth 
recording.     The  first  runs  thus  :  — 

"  G.  D.  Perhaps  by  sending  some  Agreeable  Things  to 
the  Author  of  the  Spectator^  and  the  Guardian^  there  may 
be  brought  forward  some  Services  to  the  best  Interests  of 
the  Nation." 

The  second  expresses  an  intention  to  help  an  old 
man  in  the  town,  eighty-eight  years  old  and  needy, 
"  who  was  a  souldier  in  the  Army  of  my  admirable 
Cromwely  and  actually  present  in  the  Battel  of  Dun- 
bar^  The  third  is  a  resolution  to  counteract  the  cor- 
ruption spread  by  "filthy  ballads,"  by  having  cheap 
hymns  hawked  about,  —  "  some  from  the  excellent 
Watts." 

The  rest  of  his  story  for  this  year  is  more  notable  in 
his  personal  history. 

"  I2d.  8m.^  This  Day,  in  Ships  arriving  from  London, 
I  receive  Letters  from  the  Secretary  of  the  Royal  Society, 
who  tells  me,  That  my  Curiosa  Ajnericana  being  Readd 
before  that  Society,  they  were  greatly  Satisfied  therewith, 
and  ordered  the  Thanks  of  the  Society  to  be  returned  unto 
me  ;  They  also  Signified  their  Desire  and  purpose  to  Ad- 
mitt  me  as  a  Member  of  their  Body.  And,  he  assures  me, 
that  at  their  first  lawful  Meeting  for  such  purposes,  I  shall 
be  made  a  A  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society.  .  .  .  This 
is  a  marvellous  Favour  of  Heaven ;  .  .  .  One  that  will  much 
Encourage  me  ...  in  my  Essayes  to  Do  Good :  and  add 
unto  the  Superiour  Circumstances,  wherein  my  Gracious 
Lord  places  me  above  the  Contempt  of  Envious  Men."  So 
he  cried  to  the  Lord  hereby  to  quicken  his  "  Diligence  in 
His  Holy  Service  ";  and  resolved  to  improve  his  "  Corre- 
spondence with  the  Secretary  of  the  Royal  Society^  to  sett 

1  October  12th. 


PRIVATE  LIFE,  245 

afoot  among  the  members  thereof,  such  studies  as  may  be 
for  general  Benefit,  and  have  hitherto  been  but  little 
prosecuted." 

In  less  than  a  week  he  writes :  — 

*'  A  very  deep  storm  ...  my  family  may  expect  in  the 
common  calamity  of  the  spreading  Measles." 

Increase  fell  ill  on  the  1 8th :  on  the  30th,  Katy  and 
Nibby  came  down.  The  same  day  Mrs.  Mather  was 
brought  to  bed  of  twins,  —  a  boy  and  a  girl. 

**The  Glorious  God,'*  he  writes,  "in  the  Surprising  In- 
crease of  my  Family,  rebukes  my  sinful  Fears  of  having 
them  all  well-provided  for.  Thro*  the  Assistance  of  his 
Grace,  I  find  my  Soul  rejoicing  in  the  View  of  my  havingf 
in  my  Family  more  Servants  born  unto  my  Saviour.  .  .  . 
I  must  march  against  the  least  Tendencies  of  Unbelief." 

On  the  I  St  of  November  the  twins  were  baptized : 
the  girl  was  named  for  her  maternal  grandmother, 
Martha,  which 

"signifying  Doctrix  may  the  better  suit  (as  my  Father  said) 
a  Doctor's  Daughter.  I  then  thought,  who  was  Martha's 
brother  ;  and  that  Eleazar  was  the  same  with  Lazarus ;  and 
a  priestly  name  ;  and  the  child  must  be  led  to  look  for  the 
Help  of  God ^  which  is  the  signification  of  the  Name.  I 
also  had  an  excellent  uncle  of  that  Name.^  So  I  called 
them  Eleazar  and  Martha." 

In  three  days  measles  had  attacked  his  wife,  Nancy, 
Lizzy,  Jerusha,  and  the  maid. 

"8.  9.2  This  Day,  I  entertained  my  Neighbourhood 
with  a  Discourse  on  Joh.  xviii.  11.:  The  cup  which  my 
Father  has  given  me^  shall  not  I  cirifik  it.  And  lo,  this 
Day,  my  Father  is  giving  me  a  grievous  and  Bitter  Cup, 
which  I  hop'd  had  pass'd  from  me.  .  .  .  When  I  saw  my 

^  See  page  25.  2  November  8th. 


246  COTTON  MATHER. 

consort  safely  delivered,  and  very  easy,  and  the  Measles 
appearing  with  favourable  symptoms  upon  her  ...  I 
flattered  myself  that  my  Fear  was  all  over.  But  this  Day 
we  are  astonished  at  the  surprising  symptoms  of  Death 
upon  her ;  after  an  Extreme  want  of  Rest  by  Sleep,  for 
Diverse  whole  Dayes  and  Nights  together.  —  To  part  with 
so  desirable  ...  a  companion —  A  Dam  from  such  a  Nest 
of  young  ones  too  !  —  .  .  .  Tho'  my  dear  Consort  had 
been  so  long  without  sleep,  yett  she  retained  her  under- 
standing. I  used  my  opportunities  as  well  as  I  could, .  .  . 
with  Discourses  that  night  ...  to  prepare  her  for  what 
was  now  before  us.  It  comforted  her  to  see,  that  her  chil- 
dren in  Law,  were  as  fond  of  her,  as  her  own  could  be  1 
God  made  her  willing  to  Dy.  ...  I  prayed  with  her  many 
Times,  and  left  nothing  undone,  that  I  could  ...  do  for 
her  consolation.  On  Monday,  9d.  9m.,  between  three  and 
four  in  the  Afternoon,  my  dear,  dear,  dear  Friend  expired. 
—  Whereupon,  with  another  prayer  in  that  Melancholy 
Chamber,  I  endeavoured  the  Resignation  to  which  I  am 
now  called.  ...  It  comforts  me  to  see  how  extremely  Be- 
loved and  Lamented  a  Gentlewoman  I  now  find  her  to  be  in 
the  Neighbourhood.'* 

*Mo.  9.  In  the  midst  of  my  Sorrowes  ...  the  Lord 
helped  me  to  prepare  no  less  than  Two  Sermons,  for 
a  public  Thanksgiving,  which  is  to  be  celebrated  the 
day  after  tomorrow." 

"II.  9.  This  day,  I  interred  the  Earthly  part  of  my 
dear  Consort.     She  had  an  Honourable  Funeral." 

And  Bewail  tells  us  that  among  her  bearers  were 
Pemberton  and  Colman. 

**  14.  9.  This  morning,  the  first  thing  that  entertains  me, 
after  my  Rising,  is,  the  Death  of  my  Maid-Servant.  .  .  . 
Tis  a  satisfaction  to  me,  that  tho'  she  had  been  a  Wild, 
Vain,  Airy  Girl,  yett  since  her  coming  into  my  Family,  she 
became  disposed  unto  serious  Religion  ;  .  .  .  and  my  poor 


PRIVATE  LIFE.  247 

Instructions  were  the  means  that  God  blessed  for  such 
happy  purposes.*' 

Next  day  Jerusha  and  the  twins  lay  dying ;  Eleazar 
died  at  midnight  on  the  17th,  Martha  on  the  morning 
of  the  20th. 

**2i.  9.  This  Day  I  attended  the  Funeral  of  my  Two 
—  Eleazar  and  Martha.  Betwixt  9  and  10  at  night,  my 
lovely  Jerusha  expired.  She  was  Two  years,  and  about 
Seven  Months,  old.  Just  before  she  died,  she  asked  me 
to  pray  with  her;  which  I  did,  with  a  Distressed,  but  Re-  ^ 
signing  Soul ;  And  I  gave  her  up  unto  the  Lord.  The 
minute  that  she  died,  she  said,  That  she  would  go  to  Jesus 
Christ,  She  had  lain  speechless,  many  Hours.  But  in 
her  last  Moments,  her  speech  returned  a  little  to  her. 
Lord,  I  am  oppressed:  undertake  for  me!" 

"  23.  9.  This  Day,  I  followed  my  dear  Jerusha  to  the 
grave.  But  having  a  mind,  full  of  Resignation,  with  Reso- 
lutions more  than  ever  to  glorify  my  dear  Saviour ;  espe- 
cially in  what  I  may  do  for  my  own,  and  other  children." 

There  were  none  in  his  family  now,  he  remarked, 
under  seven  years  old.  Much  might  be  done  at  table, 
then,  for  both  their  manners  and  their  minds.  A  little 
later, 

"The  Quiet  and  Easy  and  unhurried  Condition  which 
my  Family  (by  sad  things)  is  bro't  unto,  gives  me  now 
Opportunity  to  examine  more  Distinctly  my  children  every 
night.'' 

Along  with  religious  books,  he  wrote  and  published 
a  letter  on  the  "  Right  Management  of  the  Sick  under 
the  Distemper  of  the  Measles." 

Cressy  was  much  on  his  mind  :  the  boy  must  study 
fencing,  music,  geometry,  navigation ;  "  his  genius 
stands  much  that  way." 


248  CO TTON  MA  THER, 

"  My  two  Younger  Children,^  shall  before  the  psalm  and 
prayer,  answer  a  Quaestion  in  the  catechism  ;  and  have 
their  Leaves  ready  turned  unto  the  proofs  of  the  Answer 
in  the  Bible;  which  they  shall  distinctly  read  unto  us,  and 
show  what  they  prove.  This  also  will  supply  a  fresh  matter 
for  the  prayer  that  is  to  follow." 

Late  in  January  he  wrote  to  a  gentleman  in  Con- 
necticut, urging  him  first  to  be  good,  and  then  to  do 
good :  by  which  it  seems  probable  that  he  meant  give 
money  to  the  College  that  was  soon  to  be  called  Yale. 
And  his  last  note  for  the  year  runs  thus  :  — 

"  I  must  in  the  Society  for  pure  purposes,  bring  on  an 
Enquiry,  what  may  be  done  for  the  suppression  of  some 
very  wicked  Houses,  that  are  the  nests  of  much  Impiety. 
I  must  also  assist  the  Booksellers  in  Addressing  the  As- 
sembly, that  their  late  Act  Against  pedlers,  may  not  hinder 
their  Hawkers  from  carrying  Books  of  piety  about  the 
countrey.  .  .  .  And  thus,  the  goodness,  and  mercy,  of  the 
glorious  Lord,  has  brought  me  to  the  end  of  another  year. 
The  Fifty-first  year  of  my  age  is  terminated." 

1  Elizabeth  and  Samuel,  the  latter  just  seven  years  old. 


XII. 

Cotton  Mather's  Private  Life.  —  His  Third 
Marruge. 

1713-1718. 

The  history  of  Massachusetts  for  the  next  five  years 
has  little  to  do  with  our  story.  In  brief  what  happened 
was  this.  In  1714,  Queen  Anne  died ;  and  on  the  226. 
of  September,  George  I.  was  proclaimed  at  Boston. 
The  commission  of  Joseph  Dudley  expired  six  months 
after  the  death  of  the  sovereign.  Sewall's  Diary  ^  shows 
how  reluctantly  the  first  of  the  Tories  relinquished 
power ;  but  relinquish  he  had  to  at  last,  and  retired  to 
private  life  at  Roxbury  for  the  rest  of  his  days.  Next 
year,  a  certain  Colonel  Burgess  was  appointed  Gover- 
nor :  he  was  unwelcome  to  the  Province,  whose  agents 
paid  him  a  round  sum  to  decline  the  office.  Lieutenant 
Governor  Tailer  was  at  the  head  of  affairs  until  1716. 
On  October  4th,  Samuel  Shute,  the  new  Governor,  ar- 
rived in  Boston.  The  next  two  years  passed  in  various 
misunderstandings  with  the  legislature,  about  which  we 
need  not  trouble  ourselves. 

Our  business  in  this  chapter  is  to  follow  Cotton 
Mather's  life  to  the  close  of  1718. 

Cotton  Mather's  Diary  for  1714  is  not  preserved; 
but  in  the  Mather  Papers  are  several  of  his  letters  to 
the  Winthrops  during  that  year.    They  show  him  inter- 

1  Vol.  III.  pp.  3S-39- 


250  COTTON  MATHER,  \ 

tested  in  scientific_aiid_pu^lic_jiiaJtters.  And  one  of  ■ 
them,  of  tne  2d  of  March,  contains  a  passage  worth  - 
quoting.  For  it  shows  that  after  all  he  might  have  \ 
been  no  bad  contributor  to  the  "  Spectator*^ :  he  was^ 

6  not  insensible  to  the  literar^jtyle_Qf  th^^  npw  rp^^t^j^yj    : 


"There  has  been  much  Talk,"  it  runs,^  "about  a  Duel! 
fought  between  the  Duke  Hamilton^  and  the  Lord  Mohun,  \ 
.  .  .  The  former  finding  himself  mortally  wounded,  made ! 
it  an  opportunity  to  thrust  his  Sword  up  to  the  Hilt  in  the  ; 
unguarded  body  of  the  other.  So  both  perished.  .  .  .  —  I ! 
am  now  on  a  New  side  of  the  leaf,  and  so  may  take  the  j 
Liberty  to  divert  you  with  a  short  story ;  which  therefore  | 
will  not  necessarily  belong  to  anything  in  the  t'other  page.  - 
You  knew  old  Major  Thompson.  He  had  a  story,  that] 
a  young  Nobleman,  travelling  with  his  Tutor,  visited  a; 
church  in  Italy^  and  viewing  the  Epitaphs,  ask'd  his  Tutor 
to  read  one  of  them,  which  was  not  very  legible.  He  read^ 
iTom)\oKo\o6ponov  [a  word,  whereof  I  am  not  learned  enough  * 
tb  Igiow  the  Etymology].  The  Nobleman  enquired  what^ 
the  English  of  it?  And  the  Tutor  answered,  The  World\ 
is  well  rid  of  a  Knave,  And  so  my  old  Major,  was  used, . 
when  he  heard  of  the*Death  of  certain  persons,  only  to  Lift 
up  his  hands,  and  say  Poptclokolothropon.  And  others 
also,  would  quere  Major  Thompson's  Greek,  as  they  called  ! 
it,  on  such  occasions."  \ 

SewalPs  Diary  gives  us  a  few  more  facts  for  this  year. : 
On  the  4th  of  April,  Mrs.  Increase  Mather  died  after  I 
fifty-two  years  of  wedded  life.  One  of  her  son's  six-  \ 
teen  publications  for  this  year  was  her  funeral  sermon. ! 

1  His  "Political  Fables"  of  1692-3,  reprinted  in  the  "Andros  j 
Tracts,"  are  another  example  of  his  lighter  literary  touch. 

2  Mather  Papers,  416.  Lovers  of  "  Henry  Esmond  "  will  find  | 
this  task  interesting.  ; 


HIS    THIRD  MARRIAGE.  251 

Before  very  long,  the  venerable  widower  married  the 
widow  of  her  nephew,  John  Cotton,  of  Hampton :  she 
survived  him.  On  the  20th  of  October,  the  "  swarm- 
ing brethren"  gathered  their  New  North  Church, 
founded  by  "  seventeen  substantial  mechanics  "  ;  and 
Increase  Mather  gave  the  charge,  and  Cotton  Mather 
the  right  hand  of  fellowship,  Pemberton  joining  them 
in  laying  on  their  hands.  On  the  24th  of  November, 
"a  very  cold  day,"  one  Mr.  George,  a  merchant  of 
Boston,  was  laid  in  Sewall's  tomb,  "  till  Madam  George 
have  an  oportunity  to  build  one."  Whether  he  was 
the  "  facetious  George "  who  brought  over  Cotton 
Mather's  diploma  in  1710,1  I  know  not:  but  of  the 
widow  we  shall  hear  more.  And  on  the  23d  of 
December, 

•'  Dr.  C.  Mather  preaches  excellently  from  Ps.  37.  Trust 
in  the  Lord,  etc.  only  spake  of  the  Sun  being  in  the  center 
of  our  System.  I  think  it  inconvenient  to  assert  such 
problems." 

SewalFs  Diary  for  1 7 1 5  gives  a  few  glimpses  of  the 
Mathers.  Early  in  the  year,  they  were  much  interested 
in  the  discussions  about  Dudley's  tenure  of  office,  which 
was  fast  drawing  to  a  close.  On  the  13th  of  April,  they 
enjoyed  a  singular  satisfaction :  the  Governor,  on  the 
verge  of  enforced  retirement,  dined  with  the  ministers ; 
and,  as  had  happened  at  his  first  official  feast  in  Boston,^ 
Increase  Mather  craved  a  blessing,  and  Cotton  Mather 
gave  thanks.  On  the  2d  of  August  there  was  a  fast  at 
Mr.  Colman's  about  calling  another  minister ;  when  in 
the  afternoon 

*  See  page  233.  2  gee  page  191. 


252  COTTON  MATHER.  \ 

4 
"Mr.  Pemberton  pray'd,  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  preach'd 
'  from  Isa.  5.  6.  latter  clause,  I  will  command  the  clouds,  etc.^i 
Excellently:  censur'd  him  that  had  reproach'd  the  Minis-: 
try ;  .  .  .  call'd  it  a  Satanick  insult,  twice  over,  and  it  found | 
a  kind  Reception.  ...  I  could  wish  the  extremity  of  the ' 
censure  had  been  forborn  —  Lest  we  be  devoured  one  of  j 
another." 

! 
A  fortnight  later,  Mr.  Pemberton  vexed  his  parish-  \ 

ioner  by  appearing  in  a  "  Flaxen  Wigg.*'     On  the  26th; 

of  September,  Mr.  Bridge  died,  —  apparently  the  most ' 

cordial  ally  of  the  Mathers  in  the  Boston  ministry.  ; 

"  With  him,"  writes  Sewall,  "  much  primitive  Christianity 
is  gone.  .  .  .  His  Prayers  and  Sermons  were  many  times  ' 
Excellent;  not  always  alike.  It  may  be  this  Lethargick  • 
Malady  might  though  unseen,  be  the  cause  of  some  Un-  ! 
evenness.  .  .  .  We  may  justly  fear  he  is  taken  away  from  i 
Evil  to  Come.     Isa.  si-^ 

For  about  this  time  trouble  in  England  was  expected.  ; 

But  a  few  days  later  came  welcome  news  that  all  tu-  ; 
mults  were  quelled ;  with  which  on  the  7th  of  October  i 
Sewall  visited  "utrumque  Doctorem."  ^ 

Cotton  Mather's  Diary  for  1715  is  not  preserved.  | 
But  in  the  collection  of  the  American  Antiquarian  i 
Society  are  three  long  memoranda  in  his  handwriting  ] 
which  bear  this  date.  The  first  is  a  copy  of  a  letter  i 
to  a  lady,  not  named ;  the  following  extract  will  give  ! 
a  notion  of  its  general  character :  — 

"  If  he  [who  now  addresses  you]  be  One  who  Looks  1 

1  "  And  I  will  lay  it  waste ;  it  shall  not  be  pruned,  nor  digged ;  ■ 
but  there  shall  come  up  briers  and  thorns :  I  will  also  command  ' 
the  clouds  that  they  rain  no  rain  upon  it."  \ 

2  "  Both  doctors  " ;  that  is,  the  Mathers.     • 


HIS   THIRD  MARRIAGE,  253 

upon  Love  to  his  Neighbour,  as  a  very  essential  Article  of 
his  Religion,  and  who  so  Loves  every  man,  that  the  offer  of 
an  opportunity  for  the  doing  of  Good  unto  any  One,  is  the 
sweetest  pleasure  that  can  be  given  him, .  .  .  it  will  be  very 
Reasonably  Inferred  from  hence,  that  the  Gentlewoman 
who  comes  one  day  into  the  nearest  Relation  unto  him,  will 
be  Lov'd  by  him,  as  much  as  can  be  wish'd  by  her.'*  And 
he  waxes  warm  about  "  Your  bright  Accomplishments,  your 
shining  piety,  and  your  polite  education,  your  superiour  Ca- 
pacity, and  a  most  refined  Sense,  and  incomparable  Sweet- 
ness of  Temper,  together  with  a  Constellation  of  all  the 
perfections  that  he  can  desire  to  see  related  unto  him.*' 

This  letter  is  very  long  indeed ;  the  second  memo- 
randum is  short  enough  to  be  quoted  in  full :  — 

"2id.  im.^  1715.  In  the  Evening.  —  After  some  Words 
of  decent  Respect  unto  Mrs.  G.  —  She  said,  she  had 
thought  fitt,  to  have  one  Interview  alone  with  me,  that  I 
might  fully  know  her  mind,  about  the  Matter  I  had  pro- 
posed unto  her.  She  remonstrated  the  Reproach  that  she 
had  suffered  in  the  Talk  of  people  about  that  affair;  and 
therefore  she  thought  it  time,  to  lett  me  know  her  Desire, 
that  she  might  hear  no  more  of  it,  and  that  I  would  Speak 
and  Think  no  more  of  it.  She  said.  There  were  other  per- 
sons that  would  be  more  agreeable  to  me;  and  in  whom 
the  prayers  of  many  good  people  for  me,  would  be  more 
likely  to  be  answered.  She  gave  me  to  understand,  That 
if  it  were  not  for  a  Regard  she  had  unto  my  Character  as  a 
Minister,  she  should  forbid  my  ever  making  any  more 
Visits  unto  her.  She  said,  My  Visits  would  have  been  a 
consolation  and  satisfaction  unto  her  if  I  had  mentioned 
nothing  of  this  affair:  But  she  peremptorily  forbad  my 
Writing  any  more  Letters  unto  her.  She  many  times  in- 
sisted on  it.  That  I  would  say  to  all  persons,  As  for  the 

1  March  21st. 


254  COTTON  MATHER. 


Matter  talk'd  of,  there  is  nothing  in  it.  I  offered  that  I  = 
would  say  to  All  persons,  Tis  a  Matter  which  Madam  is  j 
not  at  present  disposed  to  hear  of.  She  then  said  ;—  But  i 
people  will  say,  Why  does  she  Entertain  him?  —  if  she  , 
have  no  purpose  hereafter  to  allow  of  his  Intentions?  — 
This  she  express'd  herself  desirous,  that  there  should  be  ' 
no  Occasion  for.  I  represented  unto  her,  some  fatal  con-  i 
sequences,  likely  to  follow  on  this  conduct.  But  she  would  j 
not  admitt  any  Apprehensions  of  them.  .  The  Conversation  j 
lasted  for  several  Hours.  On  my  part,  .'it  was  as  Calm,  and  i 
as  pertinent,  and  as  obliging  as  my  dull  Witts  could  render  ' 
it.  With  as  full  Answers  as  could  be  made  unto  the  Things  , 
that  were  objected  to  me ;  and  just  Reasons  for  every  step  ' 
of  my  conduct.  At  last  I  said;  Madam^  To  give  you  a  \ 
full  Testimony  of  my  Honour  and  Esteem  for  you,  My  j 
Satisfaction  shall  be  e?itirely  sacrificed  unto  Yours,  She  ■ 
answered:  Say  and  Hold, ^^  \ 

The  third  memorandum  is  a  copy  of  a  very  long  i 
letter  to  the  Rev.  Thomas  Craighead,  who  had  pro- 
posed that  the  pair  have  another  interview.     Mather 
thinks  it  undesirable  for  the  moment,  but  begs  Craig- 
head 

"  to  assure  that  excellent  person,  that  my  Resolutions  to  j 
keep  out  of  Sight  .  .  .  oppress  my  own  mind  with  Vio-  | 
lence,  which  could  be  well  borne,  by  none  but  One  of  my  ' 
Age,  and  one  so  much  used  unto  Sacrifices.  .  .  .  She  may  ; 
depend  upon  it,  (tho',  I  know  not,  whether  a  Total  Deliv-  | 
erance  from  me,  would  not  make  her  yett  more  easy,)  that  i 
I  can  by  no  means  lay  aside  these  Vast  Respects.  But^ 
must  renew  my  endeavours  one  day  to  make  her  yett  more 
sensible  of  them.  However,  to  be  free  with  you,  I  have 
strong  Apprehensions  that  my  Dying  Hour  will  Intervene  ! 
(which.  Oh  !  join  with  me  in  my  praises  to  our  dear  Sav-  , 
iour  for  it,)  I  often  even  long  for,  and  hope  it  will  be  the  j 
best  Hour  that  ever  I  saw."  i 


HIS   THIRD   MARRIAGE.  355 

Who  Mrs.  G.  was  must  remain  a  conjecture.  But 
the  following  passage  from  Samuel  Mather's  book  ^  is 
suggestive  :  — 

"In  h\sji/ty-third yQ^iVy  July  5.  1715.  he  was  married  to 
his  third  Wife.  She  is  the  Daughter  of  the  renowned  and 
very  learned  Mr.  Samuel  Lee:  She  was  the  Widow  of 
Mr.  George,  a  worthy  Merchant,  when  Dr.  Mather 
pay'd  his  Respects  unto  her  in  order  to  be  Marry'd.  She 
is  a  Lady  of  many  and  great  Accomplishments,  and  is  the 
Doctor's  disconsolate  Widow."  By  this  last  Gentlewoman 
he  had  no  issue.'' 

Cotton  Mather's  Diary  for  1 7 1 6 '  begins  with  a 
birthday  fast,  in  which  his  most  remarkable  petitions 
were  for 

"the  Good  State  of  my  Family;  the  Welfare  of  my  Son 
abroad ;  the  Rescue  of  my  Daughter-in-Law  from  her  un- 
happy Circumstances ;  the  comfortable  Disposal  of  my 
Daughters  in  the  Married  Life." 

And  amid  such  daily  notes  of  good  devised  as  fill  his 
other  diaries  are  occasional  memoranda  concerning  his 
family  affairs.  Early  in  March  he  held  a  very  ecstatic 
thanksgiving,  in  which,  among  other  things,  he  writes, 

"  I  celebrated  the  Favours  of  Heaven  to  my  Family, 
especially  in  the  Excellent  Mother  that  He  has  bestowed 
upon  it." 

A  marginal  note,  evidently  made  later,  throws  pain- 
ful light  upon  this :  "  Ah  !  Quam  deceptus."  *  A 
gUmpse  of  the  beginning  of  his  undeception  comes 
in  the  middle  of  April :  — 

1  Life,  p.  13. 

2  Samuel  Mather  wrote  in  1729. 

*  In  the  Library  of  the  Congregational  House,  Boston. 

*  "  How  I  was  deceived  1  " 


256  COTTON  MATHER. 

"  My  Religious  and  Excellent  Consort  meets  with  some 
Exercises,  which  oblige  me,  (and,  oh  !  how  happy  am  I, 
in  the  conversation  of  so  fine  a  Soul,  and  one  so  capa- 
ble of  soaring  to  the  higher  Flights  of  piety!)  To  treat 
her  very  much  on  the  point  of  having  a  Soul,  wherein  God 
alone  shall  be  enthroned,  and  all  the  Creatures  that  usurped 
his  Throne  Ejected." 

Sammy  at  this  time  was  ill  of  a  fever ;  and  Increase, 
the  subject  of  constant  prayers  and  letters,  was  off  on 
a  voyage. 

Early  in  May,  however,  an  edifying  incident  oc- 
curred. 

"A  Wondrous  Thing  is  come  to  pass,"  he  writes  on  the 
6th.  "  My  Consort's  only  Daughter  has  had  an  Husband, 
who  has  proved  one  of  the  Worst  of  men ;  a  sorry,  sordid, 
froward,  and  exceedingly  wicked  Fellow.  His  Life  would 
have  kiird  the  Child :  and  have  utterly  confounded,  not 
only  her  Temporal  Interest,  but  my  Wife's  also.  I  was  a 
Witness  of  their  Anguish,  And  almost  a  year  ago,  I  began 
to  have  some  Irradiations  on  my  mind,  which  I  communi- 
cated unto  them,  that  before  a  year  came  about,  they  should 
see  a  Deliverance.  However,  I  could  not  bring  about  my 
purposes,  to  beseech  the  Lord  Thrice  until  towards  the 
Beginning  of  the  Winter.  But  then,  I  kept  Three  dayes  of 
prayer^  in  every  one  of  which,  a  principal  errand  unto 
Heaven  was,  to  putt  over  this  Wicked  Creature  into  the 
Hands  of  the  Holy  God,  that  in  His  Way,  and  in  His  Time, 
the  poor  child  might  be  delivered  from  his  Insupportable 
Tyrannies.  But  above  all,  that  it  might  be  by  his  becom- 
ing a  New  Creature,  if  that  might  be  obtained.  The  Sup- 
plications were  made  on  these,  and  on  other  Dayes,  with  a 
proper  spirit  of  Charity  towards  the  miserable  Man,  and 
with  all  possible  Resignation  to  the  Will  of  God.  And  my 
excellent  Consort  often  went  up  with  me  to  my  Library,  to 
make  a  Consort  in  them.     Well :  I  had  no  sooner  kept  my 


HIS   THIRD  MARRIAGE.  257 

Third  Day  but  God  smote  the  Wretch,  with  a  Languish- 
ing Sickness,  which  no  body  ever  knew  what  to  make  of. 
He  was  a  Strong,  Lively,  Hearty  Young  Man;  a  Little 
above  Thirty :  But  now,  he  Languished  for  Six  Months j 
nor  were  any  of  the  pliysicians  tho*  he  successively  em- 
ployed no  less  than  five  of  them,  able  to  help  him.  In  this 
while,  our  Faith,  our  Love,  our  patience,  and  our  Submis- 
sion to  the  Will  of  God,  underwent  many  Trials  more 
precious  than  Gold.  But  on  the  last  Wednesday,  the  Glo- 
rious God  putt  a  period  unto  the  grievous  Wayes  of  this 
Wicked  Man.  —  Now  what  remains,  is  for  me  to  make  a 
very  holy  Improvement  of  these  Dispensations.  .  .  .  "C? 
my  God,  I  will  call  upon  thee,  as  long  as  I  live  I " 

The  gentleman  whose  death  is  thus  narrated  was 
named  Howell.  Cotton  Mather  was  made  adminis- 
trator of  his  estate.  Resulting  complications,  such  as 
often  attend  the  efforts  of  unpractised  people  to 
manage  money  matters,  made  him  uncomfortable  for 
years. 

It  was  during  this  same  month  of  May  that  Katha- 
rine Mather's  consumptive  symptoms  became  alarm- 
ing. And  Katharine  was  very  dear  to  her  father  :  she 
"  understood  Latin,  and  read  Hebrew  fluently."  ^  But 
other  matters  were  less  depressing.  On  the  2  2d,  Cotton 
Mather  writes  :  —  ! 

"This  Day  my  son  Increase  returns  to  me:  much  pol- 
ished, much  improved,  better  than  ever  Disposed,  with 
Articles  of  less  Expense  to  me  than  I  expected :  And, 
which  is  wonderful,  with  an  excellent  Business  prepared 
for  him  immediately  to  fall  into.  I  am  astonished  at  the 
Favours  of  the  prayer-hearing  Lord.  Oh  my  Father,  my 
Father,  how  good  a  thing  it  is  to  trust  in  thy  Fatherly 

1  S.  Mather,  Life,  p.  14. 
17 


258  COTTON  MATHER, 

Care  !  -—  But  Oh  !    What  shall  I  now  do  to  fix  the  returned 
Child  for  the  Service  of  God ! " 

A  week  later,  discovering  that  Samuel  had  many  play 
days,  he  had  the  happy  thought  of  occupying  the  youth 
in  turning  into  Latin  some  sentences  about  "  the  true 
and  right  Intent  of  play,  and  a  good  use  of  it." 

June  found  Katharine  worse;  and  Increase  in  evi- 
dent need  of  "  Proper  Books,  to  employ  him  in  the 
Intervals  of  Business  .  .  .,  and  furnish  his  mind  with 
valuable  Treasures."  The  elder  Increase  Mather,  too, 
was  ailing. 

**  My  parent  just  finishing  seventy-seven,"  writes  Cotton 
Mather,  *'  I  must  now  more  than  ever  treat  him,  as  one 
taking  Wing  immediately  for  the  Heavenly  World." 

Harvard  College,  tog  was  employing  far  too  magh 
time  in  *^  Ethicks  ...  a  vile  piece  of_pagnnism  "  But 
although  his  troubles  were  enhanced  by  the  fact  that 
Nibby  fell  ill  of  an  ague,  he  had  the  satisfaction  of 
accepting  for  her  the  proposals  of  a  "  hopeful  young 
Gentleman,  a  merchant,"  whose  intimacy  with  the 
0  Mathers  had  "  brought  him  into  a  Business,  which  is 
likely  to  prove  Superiour  unto  what  any  young  Man  in 
the  Country  pretends  unto."  So  "that  it  maybe  to 
his  Advantage,  in  regard  to  his  Better  part,"  Cotton 
Mather  immediately  began  to  administer  to  him  "  con- 
tinual Admonitions  and  Inculcations  of  piety."  And 
mid-July  found  the  good  man  in  a  thankful  mood :  — 

*'  Except  it  be  the  Sickness  of  my  Two  Elder  Daughters, 
I  enjoy  upon  all  accounts  a  most  wonderful  prosperity. 
A  most  wonderful  prosperity  !  A  valuable  Consort !  A 
comfortable  Dwelling!  A  kind  Neighbourhood.  My  son 
Increase,  vastly  to  my  mind  —  and  Blessings  without  Num- 


HIS   THIRD  MARRIAGE,  259 

ber.  Together  with  my  own  Health  and  Strength,  strongly 
recruited.  I  must  be  solicitous  to  hear  what  the  Holy  One 
speaks  to  me  in  my  prosperity." 

On  the  14th  of  August,  an  accident  happened  to 
him,  which  Sewall  briefly  notes  with  the  remark  that 
he  "  received  no  hurt."  But  Cotton  Mather  took  it 
seriously. 

"  This  day,"  he  writes,  **  a  Singular  Thing  befel  me.  My 
God,  Help  me  to  understand  the  meaning  of  it !  I  was 
prevailed  withal,  to  do  a  thing,  which  I  very  rarely  do;  (not 
once  in  years.)  I  rode  abroad  with  some  Gentlemen,  and 
Gentlewomen,  to  take  the  Country  Air,  and  to  divert  our- 
selves, at  a  famous  Fish-pond.  In  the  Canoe,  on  the  pond, 
my  foot  slipt,  and  I  fell  overboard  into  the  pond.  Had  the 
Vessel  been  a  little  further  from  the  Shore,  I  must  have 
been  drown'd.  But  I  soon  recovered  the  Shore,  and  going 
speedily  into  a  Warm  Bed,  I  received  no  sensible  Harm. 
I  returned  well  in  the  Evening ;  sollicitous  to  make  all  the 
Reflections  of  piety,  on  my  Disaster,  and  on  my  Deliver- 
ance. But  not  yett  able  to  penetrate  into  the  Whole  mean- 
ing of  the  occurrence.  Am  I  quickly  to  go  under  the  earth, 
as  I  have  been  under  the  Water  !  —  My  Consort  had  her 
mind,  all  the  former  part  of  the  day,  and  the  day  before, 
full  of  Uneasy  Impressions,  that  this  little  Journey,  would 
have  mischief  attending  it." 

The  state  of  things  in  September  is  expressed  by  his 
note  for  the  i8th  :  — 

*'  Of  my  Two  Elder  Daughters,  The  one  I  am  giving  up 
to  God,  and  preparing  for  the  Finishing  Stroke  of  the 
^  Sacrifice,  which  the  Death  of  the  dear  creature  puts  me 
upon.  .  .  .  The  other,  I  am  giving  away  to  an  hopeful 
young  Gentleman,  who  is  tomorrow  to  become  her 
Husband." 

Next  day  Abigail  was  married  to  Mr.  Daniel  Willard. 


26o  COTTON  MATHER. 

But  Katharine  grew  steadily  worse.     Her  temper,  how- 
ever, was  serene. 

"  Death  is  become  Easy,"  he  writes,  "  yea,  pleasant  unto 
her :   she  rather  chuses  it,  and  has   a  contempt   for  this 
World,   and  a   most  satisfying   Vision   of   the   Heavenly 
World.     It  is  very  Strange  to  me  ;  The  child  feels  herself 
a  dying  :  but  has  a  strong  and  bright  persuasion  of  her  own 
Recovery.     I  have  none.     I  expect  the  Speedy  approaches 
of  Death  upon  her.  —  I  sett  apart  this  Day,  for  prayer  with 
OFasting  in  Secret,  on  the  behalf  of  the  Dying  Child.     And 
it  was  a  Day  of  Inexpressible  Enjoyments  unto  me.     I  ob- 
tained pardon  for  all  the  Sins,  that  may  have  had  a  share  in 
procuring  my  present  Sorrows.     I  resigned  the  Child  unto 
/  the  Lord :    My  Will  was  extinguished.     I   could  say  My 
j  Father^  kill  7ny  Child^  if  it  be  thy  pleasure  to  do  so.     But 
/  yett  I  interceded,  that  if  it  might  be  so,  the  cup  of  Death 
(  might  pass  from  me." 

Through  October  she  grew  gradually  worse.  But 
Cotton  Mather  was  gladdened  by  the  arrival  of  Gover- 
nor Shute. 

"  Our  New  Governour,"  he  writes  on  the  25th,  *'  appears 
to  have  a  Singular  Goodness  of  Temper,  with  a  Disposi- 
tion to  Do  Good,  Reigning  in  Him  :  He  also  favours  me 
with  singular  Testimonies  of  Regard.  Oh  !  Let  me  im- 
prove these  unexpected  opportunities  to  do  good,  in  such  a 
manner  that  God  may  have  much  Glory,  and  His  people 
much  Service  from  it." 

In  November  there  was  little  new.  Displeased  with 
some  proceedings  in  the  House  of  Representatives,  he 
sent  for  the  members  to  visit  him  at  his  house. 

**  I  would  endeavour,"  he  writes,  *' their  Illumination  in 
the  things  of  our  peace.  I  would  also  Endeavour  to  re- 
duce our  own  Fro  wards  from  the  Error  of  their  way." 


HIS   THIRD  MARRIAGE,  261 

The  administration  of  the  Howell  estate,  too,  looked 
as  if  it  were  drawing  to  a  close ;  and  he  determined  to 
propose  to  his  wife 

"  what  special  Service  for  God  and  His  Kingdome  she  will 
do,  in  case  the  Administration  be  well  finished,  and  she 
find  any  Estate  remaining,  that  may  render  her  Capable  of 
doing  anything." 

But  the  most  remarkable  thing  that  happened  this 
month  was  the  merciless  blotting,  with  a  madly  scrawl- 
ing pen,  of  two  long  passages  of  Good  Devised. 

*'  I  could  never  learn,"  he  writes  in  the  margin,  "  How  or 
Why  these  Blotts  were  made." 

Two  years  later  he  discovered. 
Meanwhile  Katharine  had  been  steadily  ailing.     On 
the  1 6th  of  December  came  the  end  :  — 

"  A  little  before  3h.  A.  M.  My  Lovely  Daughter  Katha- 
rine expired  gloriously.  The  Things  which  her  dear  Sav- 
iour has  done  to  her  and  for  her.  Afford  a  Wonderful  Story. 
.  .  .  Much  of  my  Time,  of  Late,  has  been  spent  in  Sitting 
by  her  with  Essayes  to  Strengthen  her  in  her  Agonies, 
wherein  God  graciously  assisted  me.  ...  I  have  been  for 
many  months  a  dying  in  my  feeling  the  dying  circumstances 
of  my  lovely  Katy.  And  now,  this  Last  Night,  she  is  actu- 
ally Dead  :     But  how  triumphantly  did  she  go  away !  " 

And  he  made  many  pious  resolirtions  on  this  occa- 
sion, especially  in  regard  to  Creasy,  whose  conduct 
worried  him  again.  There  was  another  thing  to  worry 
him,  too :  — 

*'  The  Health  of  my  Lovely  Consort,  who  is  the  greatest 
of  my  Temporal  Blessings,  is  a  particular  matter  of  concern 
unto  me." 

The  remaining  two  months  of  the  year  passed  quietly. 


262  COTTON  MATHER, 

His  son-in-law,  Mr.  Willard,  gratified  him  by  joining 
the  church.  And  on  the  3d  of  February  he  could 
write  thus :  — 

*'  My  Heart  is  exceedingly  affected  with  my  most  com- 
fortable and  undeserved  Enjoyments  in  my  Domestic  Cir- 
cumstances. I  can  scarce  desire  to  be  better  off,  than  I 
am,  upon  all  accounts.  An  amiable  consort,  agreeable 
Children,  most  accommodated  Habitation,  a  plentiful  Table, 
The  Respects  of  Kind  Neighbours,  a  flourishing  Auditory. 
—  I  am  even  distressed.  That  I  may  render  unto  the  Lord, 
according  to  the  Benefits  which  I  have  received  from  Him. 
Full  of  Thoughts,  what  shall  I  do  in  a  way  of  extraor- 
dinary Thankfulness  and  Fruitfulness :  Full  of  cries  to 
Heaven,  that  I  may  be  Directed,  Quickened,  Assisted  unto 
a  Right  Behaviour." 

It  was  during  this  year  1 7 1 6  that  Cotton  Mather  re- 
duced to  writing  the  affidavit,  officially  certified,  of  how 
an  apparition  appeared  to  Anne  Griffin  and  Ruth 
Weeden.  This  admirable  ghost- story,  very  like  De 
Foe's  "  Mrs.  Veal,"  is  printed  in  the  Mather  Papers.^ 
A  note  of  Sewall's  for  the  13th  of  February  will  fitly 
close  the  year  :  — 

"  Susan  brings  word  that  Mr  Pemberton  had  a  good 
night.  .  .  .  Yet  afternoon  am  sent  for  to  him  as  aproaching 
his  end.  When  came  was  finishing  his  Will.  Then  I  went 
in  to  Him :  He  call'd  me  to  sit  down  by  him,  held  me  by 
the  hand  and  spake  pertinently  to  me,  though  had  some 
difficulty  to  hear  him.  Mr.  Sewall  '-^  pray'd  fervently,  and 
quickly  after  he  expired,  bolstered  up  in  his  Bed,  about  | 
past  3  after  noon  in  the  best  Chamber.  .  .  .  My  Son  writ 

1  Pages  421-424. 

2  Joseph,  son  of  the  Judge,  and  Mr.  Pemberton's  colleague  at 
the  Old  South. 


HIS    THIRD  MARRIAGE.  263 

a  Letter  to  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  to  preach  for  him,  and  be- 
fore *twas  superscrib'd,  he  came  in,  which  took  as  a  Token 
for  good." 

Cotton  Mather's  diary  for  171 7  *  begins  with  his  re- 
marks about  Pemberton :  — 

"  Yesterday  in  the  Afternoon,  there  died  the  elder  Min- 
ister of  the  Old  South  Church  ;  .  .  .  who  was  eight  or  nine 
years  younger  than  myself.  He  was  a  Man  of  greater 
Abilities  than  many  others;  and,  no  doubt,  a  pious  man; 
but  a  man  of  a  strangely  Choleric  and  Envious  Temper, 
and  one  who  had  created  unto  me  more  Trials  of  my  pa- 
tience, and  more  clogs  upon  my  Opportunities  to  Do  Good, 
than  almost  any  man  in  the  world.  The  younger  minister 
of  that  church,  a  dear  son,  and  One  of  an  Excellent  Spirit, 
should  have  preach 'd  this  Day  ;  But  in  his  Distress  he  flies 
unto  me  to  take  his  place  in  the  public  Services.  I  cannot 
easily  reckon  up  the  opportunities  to  Do  Good,  which  I  find 
concurring,  in  this  one  Invitation  to  public  performance,  on 
such  an  Occasion.  And  the  Glorious  Lord  helped  me  to 
glorify  Him,  in  the  speaking  of  many  Things  to  serve  the 
General  Interests  of  Religion,  as  well  as  in  the  Testimony 
which  I  gave  to  what  was  Laudable  in  the  character  of  the 
Departed  Minister.  Prneliminary  to  my  public  perform- 
ance, ...  I  humbled  myself  before  the  Lord,  bewayling 
all  the  Distempers  which  the  111  Carriage  of  the  Deceased 
Neighbour  may  at  any  time  have  thrown  me  into,  and  ad- 
miring the  Divine  Goodness  and  patience  which  has  given 
me  to  outlive  so  many  of  my  younger  Brethren." 

The  year  goes  on  with  no  more  notable  matters  than 
a  good  devise  to  "  Read  a  Chapter  of  Egardus  unto  my 
Lovely  Consort  every  morning  before  we  Rise  "  ;  and  a 
troublesome  accusation  of  idolatry,  based  on  the  fact 

*  In  possession  of  the  American  Antiquarian  Society. 


264  COTTON  MATHER, 

that  he  spoke  civilly  to  a  ship-carver  who  had  made  a 
figure  of  St.  Michael  for  the  French  provinces. 

"Our  Excellent  Governor,"  he  remarks  in  May,  *' who 
has  delivered  the  Country  from  a  Flood  of  corruption, 
which  was  introduced  by  the  selling  of  places,  is  to  be 
encouraged." 

And  on  the  3d  of  July  :  — 

*'This  Day  being  the  Commencement,  as  they  call  it;  a 
Time  of  much  Resort  unto  Cambridge,  and  sorrily  enough 
thrown  away,  I  chose  to  spend  this  time  at  home,"  and  to 
pray  that  **  the  Colledge,  which  is  on  many  accounts  in  a 
very  Neglected  and  unhappy  condition  .  .  .  may  be  re- 
stored unto  better  circumstances." 

But  all  along  come  notes  that  show  domestic  trouble. 
His  family  is  much  on  his  mind.  Finally,  on  the  14th 
of  July,  he  writes  thus  :  — 

"  Suppose  that  a  child  of  my  Singular  Love  and  Hope 
should  so  fall  into  Sin,  and  be  after  wondrous  meanes  of 
Recovery  so  abandoned  of  God,  .  .  .  that  there  may  be 
terrible  cause  to  fear  lest  he  prove  a  cast-away  ;  .  .  .  what 
should  be  my  Behaviour  ? "  He  must  guard  himself  against 
rebellion  of  spirit,  adore  the  divine  sovereignty,  lament  his 
own  sins  thus  chastised,  mourn  for  the  sins  of  the  child,  and 
never  give  over  crying  unto  the  Lord. 

"  My  Son  Increase  !  "  he  writes  on  the  23d,  "  With  what 
plainness,  .  .  .  but  yett  with  what  prudence  must  I  dis- 
pense .  .  .  my  Admonitions  unto  him.  I  take  him  into  my 
Library;  There  I  renew  my  Importunities:  I  obtain  from 
him  expressions  of  Repentance,  and  fitt  Answers  to  the  De- 
mands of  piety.  I  pray  with  him  there,  and  make  him  see  I 
feel  my  Agonies  for  him.  .  .  .  Methinks  I  hear  the  Glorious 
One  saying  to  me.  Concerning  thy  Son  I  hear  thee  I " 

Other  things  troubled  him,  as  the  months  went  on  : 
"the  Venome  and  malice"  of  the  "Disaffected  Rulers 


HIS   THIRD  MARRIAGE.  265 

of  our  CoUedge,"  for  one  thing ;  his  daughter  Abigail 
bore  his  first  grandchild ;  his  consort  was  ill ;  Sammy's 
education  puzzled  him.  Finally,  in  the  middle  of  Oc- 
tober, he  felt  that  he  must 

"sett  apart  Three  Days  [^Beseech  the  Lard  thrice  f\  to  ex- 
traordinary supplications  that  [Increase]  may  not  go  on  in 
a  course  of  Impiety." 

The  same  week  Sewall  gives  us  another  glimpse  of 
him.     Mrs.  Sewall  was  very  ill. 

"  Oct.  17.  I  asked  my  wife  whether  twere  best  for  me  to 
go  to  Lecture :  She  said,  I  can't  tell :  so  I  staid  at  home, 
put  up  a  Note.  It  being  my  Son's  Lecture,  and  I  absent, 
twas  taken  much  notice  of.  —  Oct.  19.  Call'd  Dr.  C.  Mather 
to  pray,  which  he  did  excellently  in  the  Dining  Room, 
having  Suggested  good  Thoughts  to  my  wife  before  he 
went  down.  .  .  .  About  a  quarter  of  an  hour  past  four, 
my  dear  Wife  expired.  —  Oct.  20.  I  goe  to  public  Worship 
forenoon  and  Afternoon.  My  Son  has  much  adoe  to  read 
the  Note  I  put  up,  being  overwhelmed  with  tears." 

A  week  later  Cotton  Mather  preached  Mrs.  SewalFs 
funeral  sermon. 

Meanwhile  he  had  been  filled  with  unhappy  fore- 
bodings.    A  few  more  notes  tell  the  story. 

*'  [Nov.  5.]  The  Evil  that  I  greatly  feared  is  come  upon 
me.  I  am  within  these  few  hours  astonished  with  an  In- 
formation, that  an  Harlot  big  with  a  Bastard,  Accuses  my 
poor  Son  Cressy,  and  Lays  her  Belly  to  him.  The  most 
sensible  Judges,  upon  the  strictest  Enquiry,  beleeve  the 
youth  to  be  Innocent.  But  yett,  oh!  the  Humiliation!  — 
Oh !  Dreadful  Case  !  O  sorrow  beyond  any  that  I  have 
mett  withal !  What  shall  I  do  now  for  the  foolish  Youth  ! 
What  for  my  Afflicted  and  Abased  Family  !  My  God, 
look  mercifully  upon  me." 


266  COTTON  MATHER, 

**  19.  My  God  has  not  heard  me.  .  .  .  My  poor  Son 
has  made  a  worse  Exhibition  of  himself  unto  me  this  day 
than  I  have  ever  yett  mett  withal.  Oh  my  God,  what 
shall  I  do  !  What  shall  I  do !  I  will  not  yett  utterly  cast 
off  the  wretched  child.  But  I  will  still  follow  Thee  with 
supplications  for  what  nothing  but  an  Almighty  Arm  can 
accomplish." 

"  Dec.  22.  The  aspect  that  some  occurrences  have  upon 
me  tells  me,  that  I  have  not  sufficiently  repented  of  some 
Former  Iniquities.  .  .  .  My  God,  help  me,  help  me,  to 
conform  unto  Thy  Dispensations,  and  ly  in  the  Dust 
before  Thee  ! ''  \ 

His  wife  was  ill,  too :  and  though  Sammy  was  the  ' 
best  boy  imaginable,  his  education  was  puzzling.  Then  , 
his  "  transcendently  wicked  brother-in-law  "  died,  and  ' 
he  had  to  console  the  widow.  February  found  him  a  1 
little  more  calm,  determining  to  have  a  cold  bath  set  '■ 
up  for  fever-patients ;  and,  entreating  of  his  "  Discreet 
Consort  *'  that  she  would  plainly  discover  to  him  any  j 
traits  of  his  that  she  would  have  otherwise,  he  had  the  \ 
satisfaction  to  be  told  of  nothing.  For  his  own  part,  | 
he  thought  himself  too  touchy,  —  | 

/**tho'  I  must  be  blind  indeed  if  I  do  not  see  .  .  .  that  i 
Y  .  .  I  meet  with  very  odd,  absurd,  and  froward  usage  from  ! 
^  some  of  the  people."  ; 

But  perhaps  the  most  permanently  notable  of  his  good  i 
devices  for  the  year  —  he  made  at  least  one  every  day  j 
—  was  that  which  he  made  on  the  2d  of  January.  ! 

"What  shall  I  do,"  he  asked  himself  that  morning,  "for  i 

the  welfare  of  the  Colledge  at  New-Haven  ?  I  am  inclina-  < 
ble  to  write  unto  a  wealthy  East-India  merchant  at  London,  -j 
who  may  be  disposed  on  Several  Accounts,  to  do  for  that  1 
Society  and  Colony."  J 


YALE   COLLEGE,  267 

The  College  in  question  had  been  founded  in  1 700  :  ^ 
without  any  endowment  to  speak  of,  it  had  distinguished 
itself  from  Harvard  by  maintaining,  in  pristine  auster- 
ity, the  Calvinism  of  the  fathers.  So  the  Mathers,  and 
Sewall,  and  all  who  felt  the  old  time  passing  from  Mas- 
sachusetts, looked  with  growing  fondness  to  New  Haven. 
The  letter  which  Cotton  Mather  projected  on  the  2d  of 
January,  he  wrote  on  the  i8th.^  It  was  to  Elihu  Yale. 
And  among  other  arguments  he  urged  was  this  :  —  / 

"Sir,  though  you  have  your  felicities  in  your  family,  / 
which  I  pray  God  continue  and  multiply,  yet  certainly  if 
what  is  forming  at  New  Haven  might  wear  the  name  of 
Yale  College,  it  would  be  belter  than  a  fuiffte  of  sons 
and  daughters.  And  your  munificence  might  easily  ob- 
tain for  you  such  a  commemoration." 

Yale  thought  so  too :  he  gave  a  handsome  gift  to 
the  College ;  and  ever  since,  thanks  to  Cotton  Mather, 
the  greatest  nursery  of  New  England  priesthood  has 
borne  his  name. 

"  Yale  College,"  wrote  Cotton  Mather  to  Governor  Sal- 
tonstall  next  June,  "cannot  fail  of  Mr.  Yale's  generous  and 
growing  bounty.  I  confess  that  it  was  a  great  and  inex- 
cusable presumption  in  me,  to  make  myself  so  far  the  god- 
father of  the  beloved  infant  as  to  propose  a  name  for  it. 
.  .  .  [But]  when  the  servants  of  God  meet  at  your  Com- 
mencement, I  make  no  doubt,  that  under  your  Honour's 
influences  and  encouragements  they  will  make  it  an  oppor- 
tunity ...  to  deliberate  upon  projections  to  serve  the  great 
interests  of  education,  and  so  of  reli^jjion,  .  .  .  and  not 
suffer  an  interview  of  your  best  men  to  evaporate  such 
a  senseless,  useless,  noisy  impertinency  as  it  uses  to  do 
with  us  at  Cambridge." 

1  Quincy,  I.  197-200;  Palfrey,  IH.  343-345. 

2  Quincy,  I.  226-229,  524-527. 


268  COTTON  MA  THER.  ] 

How  things  were  going  at  Cambridge  appears  from  • 
a  long  note  of  Sewall's^  in  the  following  November.  ' 
At  a  meeting  of  the  Overseers,  to  consider  an  enlarge-  *• 
ment  of  the  College  buildings,  Sewall  arose  and  said  ' 
that  there  was  an  affair  of  greater  moment :  he  under- 
stood that  exposition  of  the  Scriptures  in  the  Hall  had  { 
not  been  carried  on ;  he  asked  the  President  "  whether  i 
'twere  so  or  no."  Leverett  was  much  displeased  at  i 
Sewall's  manner,  but  admitted  the  charge.  After  a  hot  ' 
discussion,  Mr.  Wadsworth  moved  that  "  the  president  ; 
should  as  frequently  as  he  couhi  entertain  the~~students  ; 
with  Expositions  of  the  Holy  Scriptures." 

"  I  mov'd,"  writes  Sewall,  "  that  as  he  could  might  be  left  i 
out;  and  it  was  so  voted.  Mr.  President  seem*d  to  say  ] 
softly,  it  was  not  till  now  the  Business  of  the  President  to  \ 
Expound  in  the  Hall.  I  satd  I  was  glad  the  Overseers  had  ; 
now  the  Honour  of  declaring  it  to  be  the  President's  duty.''  I 

Next  day  Leverett  repented  his  view  in  private  to 
Sewall.  l^ 

"  I  said,"  writes itne  sturdy  Puritan,  "Twas  a  shame  that  i 
a  Law  should  be  needed  ;  meaning  ex  malts  moribus  bonae 
leges:' ^  i 

In  1 718,  too,  another  matter  showed  how  far  the  ■ 

College  had  strayed  from  the  polity  of  the  fathers.     A  '■■ 

graduate  named  Pierpont  was  refused  the  Master's  de-  ' 

gree  on  the  ground  that  he  had  contemned  and  in-  i 

suited  the  government  of  the  College.     He  sued  for  it  ; 

at  law,  with  the  encouragement  of  the  Mathers.     And  \ 

Cotton  Mather  wrote  a  long  letter  in  his  behalf  to  Gov-  j 

ernor  Shute.    It  was  of  no  avail.    The  courts  held  that  : 

1  Diary,  III.  202,  203.  j 

2  "  Good  laws  spring  from  evil  practices." 


HIS   THIRD  MARRIAGE,  269 

the  matter  was  wholly  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
College  authorities.^     And  this  is  why,  in  1 7 1 8,  Cotton 
vMather  again  and  again  bewails  "  the  wretched  condi- 
tion of  the  College."     On  the  2d  of  July, 

"this  being  the  Day  of  the  senseless  Diversion  they  call 
the  Commencement  at  Cambridge,  one  of  my  special  er- 
rands unto  Heaven  was  to  ask  Blessings  for  the  Colledge, 
and  the  Rescue  of  it  from  some  wretched  circumstances  in 
which  it  is  now  languishing." 

And  now  and  again  he  has  words  of  counsel  for  the 
"good,  wise,  generous  Governor,"  who,  Sewall  tells, 
"gave  occasional  balls,  and  went  to  a  horse-race." 

Cotton  Mather's  diary  for  1718^  contains  good  de- 
vices for  every  day  in  the  year.  It  shows  his  marvel- 
lous activity  and  restlessness  at  its  highest  point.  But 
what  seems  nearest  to  him  is  the  condition  of  his 
family.  His  aged  parent  was  on  his  mind  more  and 
more^  he  praved  and  strugo:led  for  Increase  with  ago- 
nizing^cffr)^^^  ^^  IT^'^"^^?  -^^  assurailC£_thatjifter£llj;he 
boy  should  be  saved ;  and  now  and  again  comes  the 
^single  cry,  '*  My  God  !     My  God  !  "     Once  he  writes, 

"  Things  appeared  unto  me,  as  if  the  Holy  Ghost,  were 
\ coming  forth,  to  take  a  terrible  Vengeance  on  me  for  the 
(sins  which  my  life  has  been  filled  withal;  yea,  and  as  if 
jmy  Death  being  at  hand  I    am  to  Dy  on  111  Terms  with 

Heaven,  and  have  the  dreadful  portion  of  the  Hypocrites 

assigned  unto  me." 

There  are  one  or  two  curious  notes,  —  one  showing 
his  feeling  toward  the  mother  country  he  never  saw  :  he 
will  write  "  home,"  he  plans,  about  Jacobite  troubles. 

1  Quincy,  Vol.  I.  Chap.  XI. 

2  In  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


270  COTTON  MATHER.  \ 

And  late  in  the  year  he  projects  somethmg  he  never  \ 
executed,  —  an  \ 

"  Enchiridion  of  the  Liberal  Sciences  .  .  .  which  might  j 
enable  persons  easily  to  attain  them  :  and  at  the  same  time 
consecrate  the  whole  Erudition  unto  the  Designs  of  piety."  \ 

1 

But  throughout  the  year  one  feels  a  growing  trouble,  | 

and  knows  not  quite  what  it  is.     This  note,  written  on  I 
the  1 8th  of  November,  is  typical :  —  ^ 

"  My  Family  is  in  astonishing  circumstances.  O  !  the  ' 
patience,  the  prudence,  the  prayer  that  is  called  for.  If  it  . 
were  not  for  my  calling  of  a  glorious  Christ  into  my  mind  1 
G continually,  and  the  visits  which  He  graciously  makes  unto  ; 
my  poor,  sinful,  sickly  soul,  what,  what  would  become  of 
me !  I  here  leave  this  testimony  to  you,  my  children,  or  < 
whosever  Hands  these  papers  may  fall  into  :  That  a  glo- 
rious Christ  conversed  withal,  will  be  the  life  of  the  Soul  \ 

that  has  Him  dwelling  in  it." 

\ 
On  the  1 8th  of  January  the  volume  suddenly  breaks  \ 

off,  with  a  resolution  to  read  Thomas  ^  Kempis,  1 

*'a  Book  of  piety,  which  tis  observable,  all  Christians  of  all  ' 
coihunions  have  approved  and  valued."  , 

A  little  volume  of  seven  leaves,  entitled,  "  The  Con-  ! 
elusion  of  the  LVI.  Year,"  ^  —  preserved  quite  sepa-  ] 
rately  from  the  rest,  —  tells  the  secret. 

"2id.   xim.   1718.     Wednesday,"    runs  the   first   entry.  '-•■ 

^  **  My  Glorious  Lord  has  inflicted  a  New  and  a  Sharp  Chas-  \ 

tisement  upon  me.     The  consort  in  whom  I  flattered  my-  ' 
self  with  the  View  and  Hope  of  an  Uncommon  Enjoyment, 

has  dismally  confirmed  it  unto  me,  that  our   Idols   must  ; 

prove  our  Sorrow.     Now  and  then,  in  some  of  the  former  '•. 

years  I  observed  and  suffered  grievous  outbreakings  of  her  i 

1  In  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  \ 


HIS  THIRD  MARRIAGE.  271 

proud  passions ;  but  I  quickly  overcame  them  with  my 
victorious  Love,  and  in  the  Methods  of  Meekness  and 
Goodness.  And,  O  My  SA  VIOUR^  I  ascribe  unto  thee  all 
the  glory  of  it^  and  I  wondrously  praise  thee  for  it :  I  do 
not  know,  that  I  have  to  this  Day  spoke  one  Impatient  or 
Unbecoming  Word  unto  her;  tho*  my  provocations  have 
been  unspeakable  ;  and  it  may  be  few  men  in  the  World, 
would  have  borne  them  as  I  have  done.  But  this  last  Year 
has  been  full  of  her  prodigious  paroxysms,  which  have 
made  it  a  year  of  such  Distresses  unto  me,  as  I  have  never 
seen  in  my  Life  before.  When  the  paroxysms  are  gone  off, 
she  has  treated  me  still  with  a  Fondness,  that  it  may  be,  few 
Wives  in  the  World  have  arrived  unto.  But  in  the  Return 
of  them  (which  of  late  still  grow  more  and  more  frequent) 
she  has  insulted  me  with  such  Outrages,  that  I  am  at  a  loss, 
which  I  should  ascribe  them  to  :  Whether  a  Distraction 
which  may  be  somewhat  Haereditary,)  or  to  a  possession; 
(whereof  the  symptoms  have  been  too  direful  to  be  men- 
tioned.) In  some  other  papers^  I  leave  a  more  particular 
Account  of  these  Things.  But  what  I  have  here  to  Relate 
is :  That  she  had  expressed  such  a  Venome,  against  my 
Reserved  Memorials,  of  experiences  in,  and  projections  for, 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  as  has  obliged  me  to  Lay  the  Memo- 
rials of  this  year,  I  thought,  where  she  would  not  find  them. 
It  has  been  a  year  wherein  I  have  made  more  Advances  in 
piety,  than  in  many  former  years.  Perhaps,  my  Journey 
thro*  the  Wilderness  just  expiring,  I  must  ride  more  way 
in  one  year  now  than  in  forty  before.  .  .  .  For  every  Day 
I  have  noted,  my  purposes  of  Service  for  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  For  fear  of  what  might  happen,  I  have  not  one  dis- 
respectful word  of  this  proud  woman,  in  all  the  papers.  But 
this  week,  she  has  in  her  Indecent  Romaging  found  them, 
and  she  not  only  detains  them  from  me,  but  either  she  has 
destroy'd  them,  or  she  does  protest,  that  I  shall  never  see 
them  any  more.     I  have  offered  unto  her,  to  blott  out  with 

1  These  papers  I  have  not  come  across. 


2  72  COTTON  MATHER, 

her  pen  whatever  she  would  not  have  to  be  there.  But  no 
loving  Entreaties  of  Mine  can  prevail  upon  her  to  Restore 
them.  Only,  she  gives  me  hope  of  Restoring  some  time  or 
other,  the  papers  of  the  Four  or  Five  preceding  years, 
which  this  ungentlewomanly  woman  has  also  stolen.  .  •  .  I 
have  Lived  for  near  a  year  in  a  continual  Anguish  of  Ex- 
pectation, that  my  poor  Wife,  by  exposing  her  Madness, 
would  bring  a  Ruine  on  my  Ministry.  But  now  it  is  Ex- 
posed, my  Reputation  is  marvellously  preserved  among  the 
people  of  God,  and  there  is  come  such  a  General  and  Vio- 
lent Blast  upon  her  own,  as  I  cannot  but  be  greatly  troubled 
at.     I  will  now  go  on." 

And  go  on  he  does,  with  good  devices  for  every  day 
until  his  next  birth-day.  But  the  secret  was  out.  gis 
wife  was  mad ;  and^jnad-shfi,  remained  all  the  rest^pf 
his  life. 


XIII. 

Inoculation. 

1721. 

The  history  of  Massachusetts  during  the  ten  remain- 
ing years  of  Cotton  Mather's  life  concerns  us  little.  In 
1720,  Joseph  Dudley  died,  in  his  last  days  weak  as  a 
child.  Amid  increasing  troubles  with  the  legislature, 
Shute  remained  Governor  until  the  death  of  George  I. ; 
but  during  the  last  years  of  his  office  he  was  in  Eng- 
land, and  Lieutenant  Governor  Dummer  in  charge  of 
affairs  at  home.  There  were  troubles  with  Jesuits  and 
Indians  in  Maine;  there  were  financial  difficulties, 
and  disputes  about  official  salaries ;  there  were  squab- 
bles about  the  seizure  of  timber  for  the  Royal  Navy. 
George  II.'s  first  Governor  was  William  Burnet,  still 
in  office  when  Cotton  Mather  died.  Our  business  now 
is  to  follow  Cotton  Mather  to  his  end.  In  this  chap- 
ter I  shall  tell  of  his  life  to  the  end  of  172 1. 

His  diaries  for  1719  and  1720  are  not  preserved: 
/nor  do  I    find  any  record  of  these  years  that  shows 
\  him  other  than  what   we   have   seen.     Eternally  busy 
\with  his  preaching,  his  writing,  his  reading,  his  scien- 
tific study,  his  endless  projects  to  do  what  he  thought  ^  / 
was   goodj  perplexed  with  the  growing  infirmities  of 
'  his  aged  parent,  with  the  periodic  madness  of  his  wife, 
with   the  constant  misconduct  of  Increase,  he  passed 
through  his  fifty-seventh  and  fifty- eighth  years.     And  in 
18 


2  74  COTTON  MATHER. 

1 72 1,  like  loyal  sons  of  Harvard  since  his  time,  he  sent 
Sam  to  college  there,  with  cordial  letters  to  a  President 
of  whom  he  heartily  disapproved. 

His  diary  for  1721  ^  records  one  of  the  busiest  and 
most  useful  years  of  his  life.  The  daily  notes  of  good 
devices,  for  all  manner  of  things  and  people  in  all  parts 
of  the  world,  crowd  the  pages.  But  month  by  month 
there  are  notes  of  other  matters.  It  may  perhaps  be 
best  to  glance  at  them  month  by  month. 

In  March,  busy  as  ever,  he  felt  his  family  much  on 
his  mind ;  and  one  good  device  is  worth  remembering : 
new  accomplishments  for  Cressy  must  be  paid  for,  — 
"  to  render  him  a  more  finished  gentleman  [Oh  !  when, 
when  shall  I  say  Christian  !]"  So  too  is  a  note  that 
recalls  the  death  of  Howell :  ^  a  "  wicked  party  "  had 
been  raising  trouble  in  the  country,  and  Cotton  Mather 
had  prayed  earnestly  against  them ;  this  month  one  of 
their  leaders  was  stricken  with  apoplexy. 

"  Methinks,"  writes  the  life-long  foe  of  witchcraft,  "  I  see 
a  wonderful  token  for  Good  in  this  matter  ;  and  I  go  on 
with  my  Humble  Supplications  to  the  Lord." 

Early  in  April,  Increase  was  arrested  for  night-riot 
with  "  some  detestable  rakes  in  the  Town." 

**  What,  what  shall  I  do ! "  writes  his  poor  father.  "  How 
shall  I  glorify  my  Just,  Wise,  Dear  Saviour  on  this  deplora- 
ble occasion.  And  what  is  my  Duty  in  relation  to  the  In- 
corrigible prodigal." —  "  I  must  chase  him  out  of  my  sight," 
he  writes,  a  few  days  later,  "forbid  him  to  see  me,  until 
there  appear  sensible  marks  of  repentance  upon  him. 
Nevertheless,  I  will  entreat  his  Grandfather  to  take  pains 

1  In  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 

2  See  page  256. 


INOCULA  TION,  2  75 

for  his  Recovery."  —  **  I  will  write  a  tremendous  letter  to 
my  wicked  son  Increase/'  CVnes  still  later  ;  .  .  .  "  I  will  tell 
him  that  I  will  never  .  .  .  look  on  h.im,  till  the  characters 
of  a  penitent  are  very  conspicuous  in  .'  ^T..  .  .  .  Lord, 
Tho'  I  am  a  Dog,  yett  cast  out  the  Devil  that  has  posses- 
sion of  the  Child."  —  "  Ah,  poor  Increase  !  "  he  writes  at 
last,  **  Tho'  I  spake  against  him,  yett  I  earnestly  remember 
him,  and  my  Bowels  are  troubled  for  him." 

Nor  was  this  the  only  trouble  now  :  many  of  his  flock 
were  leaving  for  another  church,  which  vexed  him 
sorely.     He  comforted  himself  with  this  reflection  :  — 

"I  shall  enjoy  a  bright  conformity  to  my  Saviour,  .  .  . 
if,  just  before  my  Death,  I  suffer  a  general  withdrawal  of    / 
my  hearers  from  me."  ' 

But  old  Increase  Mather  was  not  so  patient :  — 

"  My  aged  father  laies  to  heart  the  withdrawal  of  a  vain, 
proud,  foolish  people  from  him  in  his  age." 

There  is  one  charming  note  in  May :  — 

"  The  Time  of  the  year  arrives  for  the  glories  of  Nature 
to  appear  in  my  Garden.  I  will  take  my  Walks  there,  on 
purpose  to  read  the  glories  of  my  Saviour  in  them." 

But  that  very  week  there  was  calamity  abroad.  His 
note  for  the  26th  of  May  is  probably  the  most  memora- 
ble he  ever  made.  He  wrote  good  devices  every  day, 
we  must  remember.  Hundreds  of  these  and  thousands 
came,  for  all  we  know,  to  nothing;  but  the  one  he 
made  this  day  was  of  lasting  good  to  humanity  :  — 

**  G.  D.  The  grievous  Calamity  of  the  Small-pox  has  now 
entered  the  Town.  The  practice  of  conveying  and  suffer- 
ing the  Small-pox  by  Inoculation  has  never  been  used  in 
America,  nor  indeed  in  the  Nation.     But  how  many  lives 


276  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

might  be  saved  by  it,  if  it  were  practiced.     I  will  .  .  .  con- 
sult our  pliysicians,  and  lay  tlit>jj?iatter  before  them." 

The  pestilence  .was  very  severe  :  it  aroused  the  best 
activities  of  his  nature.     Nowhere  else  in  his  records 

fdoes  he  show  himself  so  free  from  morbid  introspec- 
tion, so  active  in  self- forgetful  altruism,  as  now.  And 
in  June,  he  laid  before  the  physicians  his  suggestion  of 
sX\  inoculation.  He  had  read  of  it,  I  believe,  in  some 
^  papers  of  the  Royal  Society ;  and  his  early  training  as 
a  physician  gave  him  authority.^  But  the  proposal  was 
startling  to  many  of  the  learned,  and  to  all  the  vulgar. 
"It  raised  an  horrid  Clamour." 

In  July,  this  clamour  was  all  about  him.  Quarrels 
with  his  step-children,  the  Howells,  whose  estate  he 
had  tried  to  administer,  vexed  him,  at  the  same  time ; 
to  meet  their  claims,  he  had  even  to  sell  some  of  his 
clothing.  But  what  troubled  him  most  was  the  panic 
of  the  plague- stricken  town. 

"  The  cursed  clamour  of  a  people  strangely  and  fiercely 
possessed  of  the  Devil  will  probably  prevent  my  saving  the 
Lives  of  my  Two  Children  from  the  Small-pox  in  the  way 
of  Transplantation."  And  he  prayed,  "  that  God  would 
requite  me  good  for  all  the  cursing  of  a  people  that  have 
Satan  filling  of  them ;  and  yett  appear,  to  rescue,  and  in- 
crease my  opportunities  to  Do  Good,  which  the  great  ad- 
versary is  now  making  an  Hellish  Assault  upon."  He  was 
assailed  with  "  wild  abuse  ...  for  nothing  but  instructing 
our  base  physicians,  how  to  save  many  precious  lives  '^ ; 
but  at  the  end  of  the  month  he  could  write  thus  :  "  I  must 

1  The  American  Antiquarian  Society  preserves  a  large  manu- 
script of  Cotton  Mather's  entitled  the  "  Angel  of  Bethesda/' 
Valueless  to-day,  this  is  said  to  be  a  good  manual  of  contempo- 
rary medicine. 


INOCULATION.  2JJ 

exceedingly  Rejoice  in  my  Conformity  to  my  Admirable 
Saviour  :  who  was  thus,  and  worse  Requited,  when  he  .  .  . 
came  to  save  their  Souls." 

So  came  August.  His  son  Samuel  wished  to  be  inocu- 
lated.    But  if  the  boy  should  die,  thought  the  father, 

**  the  people,  who  have  Satan  remarkably  filling  their 
hearts,  .  .  .  will  go  on  with  infinite  prejudices  against  me 
and  my  ministry.  .  .  .  His  Grandfather  advises,  That  I 
keep  the  whole  proceeding  private,  and  that  I  bring  the 
Lad  into  this  method  of  Safety.  My  God,  I  know  not 
what  to  do  ! " 

"It  is  the  Hour  ...  of  Darkness  on  this  Despicable 
Town,"  he  wrote  later;  but  drew  his  pen  through  "Des- 
picable "  and  wrote  "  miserable  "  instead. 

In  the  middle  of  the  month,  he  yielded  to  Sam's  re- 
quest, and  the  lad  was  inoculated.  He  sickened  so 
fast  and  so  severely  that  his  father  was  seized  with  a 
dread  that  perhaps,  before  the  inoculation,  the  poor 
boy  had  already  contracted  the  disorder.  And  the 
panic  against  inoculation  rose  so  that  the  town  became 
"almost  an  Hell  on  Earth."  Nancy  came  down  with 
the  pestilence,  too ;  and  as  the  month  went  on,  both 
grew  worse.  Yet  in  all  his  agony,  and  with  such  ex- 
ecrations about  him  as  even  in  his  troublous  life  he  had 
hardly  heard  before,  he  resolved  that  he  would  write  to 
England,  urging  that  they  try  inoculation  there.  So, 
with  prayers,  and  faith  amid  every  doubt,  he  did  his 
duty :  and  at  the  very  end  of  the  month  came  relief. 
Opening  his  Bible  for  comfort,  Cotton  Mather's  eye 
fell  on  the  words,  "  Go  thy  way.  Thy  Son  liveth."  And 
that  very  day  Sam  was  bled,  and  began  to  mend. 
Inoculation   had   triumphed. 


2  78  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

In  September,  both  Sam  and  Nancy  were  convales- 
cent ;  but  a  new  trial  came.  There  was  an  interval  of 
comfort;  Cotton  Mather  preached  for  the  bereaved 
minister  of  the  New  North  Church,  —  the  church  of 
the  ''swarming  brethren,"  —  thereby  introducing  ''a 
more  peaceable  condition  of  Things  in  our  Churches." 
But  Increase  began  to  misbehave  again ;  and  on  the 
19th,  Abigail  died  in  childbed.  Cotton  Mather's  last 
prayer  for  the  month  is  typical  of  his  mood  :  — 

"That  I  may  humble  myself  before  the  Lord,"  it  runs, 
**for  all  the  Sins  which  the  Death  of  my  dear  Nibby  calls 
me  to  repentance  for.  That  I  may  obtain  mercy  for  the 
Family  that  she  has  left  behind  her.  That  Nancy  may 
have  a  perfect  recovery;  Creasy  be  made  a  New  Creature; 
Liza  have  her  life  preserved  in  the  Dangers  of  the  Conta- 
gion; and  Sammy  be  bless'd  in  his  Education.  That  I 
may  be  supported  and  preserved  in  my  daily  Visits  to  the 
Sick  Chambers  that  are  so  lothsome,  and  full  of  Malignity. 
That  I  may  be  directed,  assisted,  prospered  in  my  whole 
Ministry.  And  have  a  particular  Smile  of  Heaven  on  the 
Essays  I  am  now  sending  beyond  sea  to  serve  the  King- 
dom of  God." 

And  this  troubled  month  he  gave  no  less  than  three 
publications  to  the  press. 

Early  in  October  comes  a  different  note.  Three 
of  his  children  lived  with  him,  and  a  kinswoman  of  his 
wife's. 

"  Tho'  I  will  have  my  Table  Talk  Facetious  as  well  as 
Instructive,  .  .  .  yett  I  will  have  the  Exercise  continually 
intermixed.  I  will  sett  before  them  some  sentence  of  the 
Bible,  and  make  some  useful  Remarks  upon  it." 

The  pestilence  was  at  its  height,  though :  in  one 
week  315  petitions  for  prayer  were  put  up  in  the  North 


INOCULATION.  279 

Church;  the  next  week,  322.  And  Increase  Mather, 
in  his  sorrowful  old  age,  was  now  "  wholly  Laid  by  from 
all  public  service."  Cotton  Mather  struggled  hard. 
The  petitions  for  prayers  fell  to  180.  But  at  the  end 
of  the  month  he  wrote  :  — 

"  In  my  Remarks  on  the  Folly  and  Baseness  contin- 
ually expressed  by  our  Absurd  and  wicked  people,  I  do  not 
always  preserve  that  meekness  of  Wisdom,  which  would 
adorn  the  Doctrine  of  God  my  Saviour.  I  will  ask  Wis- 
dom of  God  for  the  cure  of  this  Distemper.*' 

What  happened  in  November  he  shall  tell  for 
himself :  — 

"My  Kinsman,  the  Minister  of  Roxbury^  being  enter- 
tained at  my  House,  that  he  might  there  undergo  the 
Small-pox  Inoculated^  and  so  Return  to  the  Service  of 
his  Flock,  which  have  the  contagion  begun  among  them : 
Towards  Three  a  clock  in  the  Night,  as  it  grew  towards 
the  Morning  of  this  Day,*  some  unknown  Hands,  threw  a 
Fired  Granado  into  the  Chamber  where  my  kinsman  lay, 
and  which  uses  to  be  my  Lodging-Room.  The  Weight  of 
the  Iron  Ball  alone,  had  it  fallen  upon  his  Head,  would 
have  been  enough  to  have  done  part  of  the  Business  de- 
signed. But  the  Granado  was  charged,  the  upper  part 
with  dried  powder,  the  lower  part  with  Oil  of  Turpentine, 
and  powder  and  what  else  I  know  not,  in  such  a  manner 
that  upon  going  off,  it  must  have  splitt,  and  have  probably 
killed  the  persons  in  the  Room,  and  certainly  fired  the  / 
Chamber,  and  speedily  Laid  the  House  in  Ashes.  But,  V 
this  Alght  there  stood  by  ?ne  the  Afigel  of  GOD,  whose  I 
am  and  "iuhofn  I  serve;  and  the  Merciful  providence  of  my 
Saviour  so  ordered  it,  that  the  Granado  passing  thro'  the 
Window,  had  by  the  Iron  in  the  middle  of  the  Casement, 
such  a  Turn  given  to  it,  that  in  falling  on  the  Floor,  the 

^  14  November,  1721. 


2 8o  CO TTON  MA  THER. 

fired  wild-fire  in  the  Fuse  was  violently  shaken  out  upon 
the  Floor,  without  firing  the  Gfanado.  When  the granacfo 
was  taken  up,  there  was  found  a  paper  so  tied  with  string 
about  the  fuse  that  it  might  out-live  the  breaking  of  the 
shell,  —  which  had  these  words  in  it;  —  Cotton  Mather^ 
you  Dog;  Dam  you :  P I  enoculate  you  with  this,  with  a 
pox  to  you, ^^ 

Cotton  Mather  had  read  Foxe's  Martyrs  all  his  life. 
This  attack  was  such  as  had  been  made  on  the  saints 
in  Queen  Mary's  days,  and  older  still ;  he  was  almost 
I  a  martyr. 

"I  would  much  rather  Dy  for  my  Conformity  to  the 
Blessed  Jesus,"  he  wrote,  "in  Essays  to  save  the  Lives 
of  Men  from  the  Destroyer,  than  for  some  Truths,  tho* 
precious  ones,  to  which  many  Martyrs  testified  formerly 
in  the  Flames  of  Smithfield." 

And  he  closed  the  month   by  publishing   far  5md 
ie  accounts 


"  by  Which  means,  I  hope,  some  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
lives  may  in  a  little  while  come  to  be  preserved." 

December  brought  lesser  troubles.  An  epfpny,  to 
deride  him^  named^  a  troublesome _ slave  "Cotton 
Matfier".;  but  he  placed  his  hope  in  heaven,  and 
prayed  especially  for  "  the  welfare  of  the  unknown  per- 
son, who  sought  my  Death  by  the  fired  Granado." 
And  this  month  comes  almost  the  last  glimpse  we  have 
of  the  riotous  young  Increase  :  — 

*^  My  son  Increase,  by  a  violent  and  passionate  Resent- 
ment of  an  Indignity,  which  a  wicked  Fellow  offered  unto 
me,  has  exposed  himself  to  much  Danger,  and  me  also  to 
no  little  Trouble.  I  must  employ  this  occasion  as  much 
to  his  Advantage,  especially  in  regard  to  piety,  as  I  can." 


INOCULATION,  28 1 

The  month  ended  with  reaction :  — 

"  By  a  dark  and  a  faint  Cloud  striking  over  my  Mind,  I 
begin  to  feel  some  Hazards,  lest  my  Troubles,  whereof  I 
have  a  greater  share  than  any  Minister  in  the  Countrey, 
grow  too  hard  for  me,  and  unfit  me  and  unhinge  me  for 
my  Services." 

And  in  January  he  told  an  assembly  of  ministers  that 
his  efforts  to  do  good  had  brought  obloquy  on  him  and 
destroyed  his  usefulness.  Hereafter  he  would  follow 
good  schemes,  not  propose  them. 

"An  Ingenious  person  in  the  company,  Mr.  Wm.  Cooper, 
made  the  first  and  a  quick  Reply,  ...  in  these  Words, 
/  hope  the  Devil  don't  hear  you  ^  Syr^ 

The  last  note  for  the  year  fitly  closes  the  record :  — 

"  The  year  being  so  finished,  what  can  I  do  better  than 
seriously  peruse  the  memorials  of  it,  and  make  the  Reflec- 
tions of  piety  that  may  be  proper  upon  them." 


XIV. 

The  Death  of  Increase  Mather. 

1722-1723. 

In  the  year  1722,  a  startling  thing  happened  at  Yale 
College.  The  Rev.  Timothy  Cutler,  who  had  been  a 
successful  President  there  for  several  years,  announced 
his  conversion  to  the  Church  of  England.  He  was 
relieved  of  his  office,  and  proceeded  to  England : 
whence  by  and  by  he  came  back  as  an  Episcopal 
clergyman  to  Boston. 

Whether  this  fact  had  anything  to  do  with  what  went 
on  at  Harvard  I  cannot  say.     In  the  time  that  had 
intervened  since  Leverett  had  been  made  President,  the 
course  of  things  there  had  been  wholly  in  the  direction 
of  the  liberalism,  which  in  growing  and  changing  forms  I 
has  constantly  characterized  the  older  College.     As  we  i 
have  seen,  the  sympathy  of  whoever  held  faithfully  to  1 
the  old  traditions  of  New  England  had  been  more  and  ' 
more  directed  to  Yale.     Quincy^  shows  good  reason 
for  supposing  that  Cotton  Mather,  without  due  open- 
ness, tried  hard  to  divert  thither  at  least  a  part  of  the  - 
benefactions   of  Thomas   HoUis.     This   gentleman,  a  , 
Baptist  merchant  of  London,  was  in  his  time  the  most  j 
generous  friend  Harvard  College  had  ever  had.     And  \ 
the  effort  which  the  Orthodox  clergy  of  Massachusetts  i 

1  Vol.  I.  Chapter  XII.  j 


DEATH  OF  INCREASE  MATHER,  283 

made  to  confine  the  Professorship  of  Divinity  that  HoUis 
founded  to  their  own  creed  —  a  creed  distinctly  differ- 
ent from  his  —  is  among  the  least  admirable  features 
O^oi  their  hopeless  struggle  to  maintain  priestly  authority 
in  a  state  committed  to  constantly  more  advanced 
Protestantism. 

The  passage  I  cited  from  SewalV  describing  his  con- 
troversy with  Leverett  in  the  Board  of  Overseers,  re- 
lates one  incident  of  a  controversy  that  was  going  on 
at  Harvard.  Quincy^  tells  the  story  in  detail.  The 
Corporation  consisted  chiefly  of  men  in  sympathy  with 
Leverett;  Colman,  for  example,  was  now  a  Fellow. 
Two  tutors,  apparently  of  more  conservative  temper, 
advanced  a  claim  to  seats  in  the  Corporation.  A  fierce 
dispute  broke  out,  of  which  the  details  need  not  con- 
cern us.  One  of  its  features,  however,  was  an  official 
inquiry  into  the  actual  state  of  the  College,  educa- 
tional, religious,  and  moral.  This  was  in  progress 
throughout  the  year  1723  :  and  Cotton  Mather  eagerly 
urged  it  on.  His  suggestions  on  points  to  be  inquired 
into,  Quincy  prints  in  full.  It  seems  possible  that  the 
state  of  the  "  beloved  infant "  Yale  led  him  to  hope  for 
a  return  of  grace  to  the  mother  Harvard. 

In  the  beginning  of  this  paper  is  a  phrase  which 
refers  to  the  event  of  this  year  which  meant  most  to 
Cotton  Mather :  — 

"The  performances  of  a  deceased  person,  and  with  what 
industry  and  fidelity  the  churches  of  New  England  were 
served  in  them,  'tis  too  late  to  inquire  into." 

The  deceased  person  was  Increase  Mather.  The 
old  man  had  died  on  the  23d  of  August,  1723. 

1  See  page  268.  2  Vol.  I.  Chapter  XIII. 


284  COTTON  MATHER. 

Cotton  Mather  gives  a  long  account  of  his  father's 
latter  days ;  ^  of  the  constancy  and  method  of  his  devo- 
tions and  studies ;  of  his  benign  charity,  —  a  trait  of  > 
which  I  find  little  trace  elsewhere ;  of  the  grave  civility 
of  his  carriage  in  all  departments  of  life.  His  faults 
the  pious  son  passes  lightly:  were  it  not  for  Sewall's 
diary,  and  the  frequent  allusions  to  "  my  aged  parent " 
in  Cotton  Mather's  own,  we  should  not  have  the  pain- 
ful picture  I  can  dimly  see  of  the  austere  Puritan's  sad 
old  age.  He  had  given  the  best  energies  of  a  life  that 
had  been  among  the  most  laborious  of  his  time,  to  the 
Colony  and  the  Province  and  the  churches  of  Massa- 
chusetts. He  had  won  for  the  people  the  Charter 
under  which  they  lived  less  fettered,  I  believe,  than  any 
other  colonists  in  the  world.  And  his  reward  had  been 
neglect.  Political  power,  Harvard  College,  his  very 
congregation,  had  one  after  the  other  been  withdrawn 
from  him.  And  plagued  with  the  pains  of  pedantic 
old  age,  he  had  diffused  about  his  last  years,  I  fear,  an 
atmosphere  free  from  moral  or  spiritual  exhilaration. 
The  greatest  of  his  trials,  the  most  mysterious  of  all  the 
dispensations  he  had  to  bear,  was  the  disappointment 
of  the  greatest  particular  faith  of  his  life.  Again  and 
again,  wrestling  with  the  Lord,  he  had  been  assured 
that  he  should  once  more  serve  God  in  England.  His- 
son  had  shared  his  faith  and  his  assurances.  But  they 
came  to  nothing.  The  College  fell  back  to  the  old 
charter  that  fatally  failed  to  secure  it  to  the  faith  of 
the  fathers.  And  what  God  meant,  neither  of  the 
Mathers  could  ever  guess.  There  is  pathos  in  Cotton 
Mather's  last  note  about  the  matter :  after  all,  was  not 

1  Parentator,  XXXI.,  XXXII. 


DEATH  OF  INCREASE  MATHER,  285 

the  faith  perhaps  fulfilled  when,  in  17 15,  an  assembly 
of  ministers  asked  Increase  Mather  to  bear  a  formal 
address  of  congratulation  to  George  I.? 

A  few  of  his  last  speeches  Cotton  Mather  preserves. 
Of  Boston  he  said, 

** There  is  yet  a  number  of  Godly  People  in  the  town; 
they  may  be  brought  low,  But  the  Town  shall  be  yet  pre- 
served'^: of  the  times  in  general,  **  There  will  be  no  set- 
tled Good  Times,  I  suppose,  till  the  second  coming  of  the 
Lord." 

It  was  he  who  drew  up  a  loyal  address  for  the  Min- 
isters of  Boston  to  King  George,  deUvered  from  some) 
Jacobite  plot.  And  in  the  last  year  of  his  life  he  wrote 
a  solemn  paper,  briefly  asserting  the  old  principles  of 
New  England,  to  maintain  which  the  Colony  and  the 
College  had  been  planted ;  and  earnestly  charging 
posterity  with  the  duty  of  preserving  them. 

In  his  last  days,  grievously  plagued  with  the  stone, 
his  spirit,  like  his  father's  before  him,  sank  low. 

"  In  a  deep  Abyss  of  Humility,  there  was  utterly  Absorbed 
with  him  all  Sense  of  his  ever  having  done  any  good  at  all 
in  the  World." 

And  he  prayed,  and  begged  those  about  him  unceas- 
ingly to  pray  for  the  free  grace  of  Christ.  And  hearing 
that  Thomas  HoUis  had  written  to  ask  if  he  were  yet  in 
the  land  of  the  living,  he  bade  his  son  write  back :  — 

"  No,  Tell  him  I  am  going  to  it;  This  Poor  World  is 
the  Land  of  the  Dying." 

Late  in  July  Sewall  wrote  thus  :  — 

"  Fast  at  the  Old  North.  As  I  went  along  towards 
Cambridge-Court,  I  called  at  the  old  Doctor's  who  was 
agonizing  and  Crying  out,  Pity  me  !    Pity  me  !    I  told  him 


286  COTTON  MATHER, 

God  pity'd  him,  to  which  he  assented  and  seemed  pacify'd. 
He  prayed  God  to  be  with  me."^ 

He  lived  three   weeks   longer.      This   is  his   son's 
account  of  his  end  :  — 

**At  last,  he  began  to  fall  into  the  Torments  of  the 
Wheel  broken  at  the  Cistern:  Wbich  yet  became  not  Intol- 
erable, and  forced  no  Ejaculation  from  him  till  about  Three 
Weeks  before  he  Died.  Under  these,  about  Three  Days 
before  his  Expiration,  coming  out  of  a  Dark  Minute,  he 
said,  //  is  now  Revealed  from  Heaven  to  me^  That  I  shall 
quickly^  quickly,  quickly  be  fetched  away  to  Heaven,  and 
that  I  shall  Dy  in  the  A  rms  of  my  Son.  After  this,  he  kept 
very  much  calling  for  me;  till  Friday, iht  Twenty-Third oi 
August,  1723,  in  the  Morning  perceiving  the  Last  Agonies 
now  come  upon  him,  I  did  what  I  could  after  my  poor  man- 
ner, that  he  might  be  Strengthened  by  such  Quickening 
Words  as  the  Lively  Oracles  of  our  God  have  provided  for 
such  Occasions.  As  it  grew  towards  Noon,  I  said  unto 
him,  Syr,  the  Messenger  is  now  come  to  tell  you.  This  Day 
thou  shalt  be  in  Paradise.  Do  you  Believe  it,  Syr,  and  Re- 
joice in  the  Views  and  Hopes  of  it?  He  Replied,  /  do/ 
1  do  I  I  do  I  —  And  upon  these  Words  he  Dyed  in  my 
ArmsJ^ 

Posterity  has  inclined  to  deem  him  a  cunning  schem- 
er, justly  disappointed  in  such  ambition  as  to-day  not 
a  few  among  us  attribute  to  the  priesthood  of  Rome. 
That  he  earnestly  longed  to  see  the  temporal  power  of' 
)America  at  the  feet  of  the  spiritual,  no  man  can  doubt ; 
/nor  yet  that  he  saw  in  himself  the  man  who  should  by 
[  right  stand  at  the  head  of  the  spiritual  power  of  his 
time  and  country.     And  there  will  always  be  men,  and 
many,  who  cannot  believe  that  such  views  can  be  held 
for  any  other  reason  than  vulgar  longing   for  human 
1  Diary,  HI.  325. 


DEATH  OF  INCREASE  MATHER,  287         , 

power.  But  whoever  has  followed  the  history  of  Har-  \ 
vard  College,  through  Unitarianism,  to  that  more  shad-  - 
owy  heresy  still  which  calls  itself  unsectarian  r-eligion,  —  ] 
even  though  he  rejoice,  as  I  do,  in  the  unfettered  spirit-  ■■ 
ual  freedom  of  the  greatest  stronghold  of  American  1 
Protestantism,  —  must  know  that  the  grim  old  man  ; 
read  the  future  right.'  If  the  faith  from  which  he  ■ 
never  swerved  be  true,  then  assuredly  we  of  the  later 
times  are  lost.  And  those  who  can  train  themselves  ; 
to  that  sympathy  without  which  no  man  can  under-  ■ 
stand  his  fellows  will  not  forget,  when  they  sit  to  ^ 
judge  the  greatest  of  the  native  Puritans,  that  not 
one  of  his  efforts  to  preserve  and  strengthen  his 
earthly  authority  was  not  also  an  effort  to  make  their 
lives,  and  all  the  lives  still  to  come,  lives  which  should  \ 
tread  in  the  paths  of  salvation.  \ 

So,  after  nearly  eighty- four  busy,  troubled  years,  he  \ 
came  to  his  peace.  And  so  the  son,  who  had  never  ■ 
faltered  in  devotion,  who  for  well  on  to  forty  years  had  ^ 
:?7-  shared  every  hope^ndgrief  with  an  affection  as  broth-  ^»ry 
erly  as  it  was  filial,  was  left  alone,  to  struggle  with  a 
world  which  all  his  life  had  been  pressing  onward  from  \ 
the  station  where  his  feet  were  planted.  With  a  mad  i 
wife,  with  but  four  of  his  fifteen  children  left  him,  ' 
with  his  eldest  son  —  and  to  the  end  his  dearest  — 
straying  further  and  further  towards  perdition,  with  the       ; 

Ne^JBngland  rhnrrhpgpv-.pr  g«-rgyj|j£rjnrther  a^dJllfthf  ^ 

from  the  hol^  traditions  they  were  founded  to  preserve. 
Cotton  Mather  was  left  alone. 


J 


XV.  1 

The  Last  Diary  of  Cotton  Mather.  ^ 

1724.  J 

i 

The  last  of  Cotton  Mather's  diaries  preserved  is  that  ] 
for  1724.^  The  daily  notes  of  good  devices  continue  '. 
until  November,  when  a  sharp  fit  of  illness  broke  them  ■ 
off.  And  when  he  grew  better,  and  began  to  write  ; 
once  more,  in  a  style  whose  incoherence  shows  how  his  ' 
troubles  had  shaken  him  at  last,  his  first  note  tells  that  ] 
he  will  record  his  good  devices  no  more ;  in  the  little  i 
time  left  him  on  earth,  there  are  other  things  that  call  \ 
for  every  moment. 

It  was  a  troubled  year,  this  1724.  Yet  his  first  note 
is  not  a  troubled  one.  On  his  birthday  he  held  a  fast  •! 
as  ecstatic  as  any  he  had  known;  and  among  his  j 
works  for  the  day  was  the  long  Latin  epitaph  with 
which  he  ended  the  life  of  his  father,  —  the  book  from  j 
which  my  picture  of  the  old  man  has  chiefly  been  i 
drawn,  and  the  book  which  shows  how  firmly,  even  in  ^ 
his  closing  years,  Cotton  Mather  still  held  the  faith  '• 
which  had  governed  his  whole  life.  And  a  little  later  \ 
he  had  a  satisfaction :  forty  years  before.  Increase  ; 
Mather  had  preached  against  suicide  a  sermon  insti-  \ 
gated  by  the  act  of  one  Taylor,  father  of  the  Lieutenant  i 
Governor  to  be,  who  had  hanged  himself  with  a  snaffle-  ] 

1  In  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society. 


HIS  LAST  DIARY.  289 

bridle.  Another  notable  suicide  now  occurring,  Sewall 
sent  to  Cotton  Mather,  asking  whether  the  sermon  were 
preserved.  Cotton  Mather  found  it  almost  at  once : 
Sewall  had  it  published.^  And  so  Increase  Mather, 
though  dead,  still  spoke  to  the  people  of  New  England.*-* 
But  there  were  many  things  to  vex  Cotton  Mather,  too  : 
Increase  was  gone  to  sea ;  the  troubles  about  the  ad- 
ministration of  Howell's  estate  went  so  far  that  writs 
against  Mather  were  issued ;  '  and  in  his  house  was  a 
niece  of  his  wife,  — 

"  a  very  wicked  Creature,  and  not  only  deaf  to  all  proposals 
of  piety,  but  also  a  monstrous  Liar,  and  a  very  mischievous 
person,  and  a  Sower  of  Discord,  and  a  Monster  of  Ingrati- 
tude." 

Nor  did  discord  need  to  be  sown  in  the  unhappy 
house  :  Mrs.  Mather's  paroxysms  were  worse  than  ever. 
Again  and  again  this  year  come  Latin  notes,  telling 
under  the  thin  veil  of  that  learned  tongue  what  the 
horrors  of  his  last  marriage  were. 

Another  matter  which  troubled  him  much  he  men- 
tions thus :  — 

*'  I  hear  of  strong  Machinations  and  Expectations  among 
the  wicked  Church  of  England  Men,  to  gett  our  Colledge 
into  their  hands  ;  which  will  be  a  most  compendious  way 
to  bring  Quick  Ruine  on  our  Churches.  I  would  apply  my- 
self with  all  proper  Awakenings  to  the  men  at  Helm  on  this 
Occasion.'^  And  next  day  he  would  ''  sollicit  for  Days  of 
prayer  ...  in  the  Colledge-Hall,  on  the  Occasion  of  the 
condition  .  .  .  it  is  .  .  .  exposed  unto." 

1  Sewairs  Diary,  IIL  331,  332.  2  gee  page  26. 

8  The  two  Howells,  who  made  all  his  trouble,  were  drowned, 
while  skating  at  the  foot  of  Boston  Common,  Jan.  8,  1727-6. 
Sewall's  Letter-Book,  II.  307. 

19 


290  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

The  state  of  affairs  was  this.  The  Rev.  Timothy 
Cutler,  the  converted  President  of  Yale,  had  come 
from  England  to  Boston,  as  Episcopal  Rector  of  Christ 
Church,  —  the  church  from  which  fifty  years  later,  by  a 
curious  irony  of  fate,  the  lantern  was  shown  that  sent 
Paul  Revere  galloping  to  Lexington  and  Concord. 
One  Mr.  Myles  was  Rector  of  King's  Chapel,  the  of- 
ficial place  of  worship  of  the  royal  Governor.  As 
"ministers  of  Boston,"  these  gentlemen  claimed  seats 
in  the  Board  of  Overseers  of  Harvard  College  \  ^  and 
though  their  claim  was  never  allowed,  it  was  urged 
until  after  Cotton  Mather  was  dead.  And  it  had  to 
be  fought  hard. 

It  was  this,  among  other  things,  which  led  Cotton 
Mather  to  that  day  of  meditation  of  which  Upham  has 
published  the  greater  part  of  the  record.*  He  asked 
himself  question  after  question  about  his  earthly  state, 
and  gave  answers ;  of  which  this  is  an  example  :  — 

*'  What  has  a  gracious  God  given  me  to  do  m  good  offices 
wherever  I  could  find  opportunities  for  the  doing  of  them? 
I  for  ever  entertained  them  with  alacrity.  .  .  .  And  yet  I 
see  no  man  for  whom  all  are  so  loth  to  do  good  offices.  .  .  . 
Often  have  I  said,  What  would  I  give  if  there  were  anyone 
man  in  the  world  to  do  for  me  what  I  am  willing  to  do  for 
every  man  ! " 

But  Upham  thought  irrelevant  and  not  worth  quot- 
ing the  close  of  these  meditations. 

)     *'  I  have  a  clear  and  strong  persuasion  of  a  Future  State. 

'  .  .  .  I  do  most  freely  .  .  .  consent  unto  the  condition  of  a 

crucified  jnan,  .  .  .  without  any  prospect  of  any  Outgate, 

1  Quincy,  Vol.  I.  Chapter  XVII. 

2  Salem  Witchcraft,  II.  503,  seq. 


HIS  LAST  DIARY,  29 1 

but  at  and  by  the  Dying  Hour.  Yea,  Secondly,  I  have  al- 
ready received  an  abundant  Recompense  of  Christ,  ...  If 
I  never  had  any  other  compensation  for  my  Troubles,  I 
have  had  so  much,  that  I  need  not  ask  for  any  more." 

Which  words  and  others  like  them  make  the  passage 
seem  to  me  other  than  to  Upham  :  he  finds  in  it  a 
confession  of  selfish  wickedness  which  deliberately 
sacrificed  human  life  in  the  witchcraft  trials,  two  and 
thirty  years  before. 

What  Cotton  Mather  had  to  bear  from  his  wife,  these 
two  notes  tell :  — 

August  13.  "  This  night  my  unaccountable  Consort,  had 
a  prodigious  return  of  her  pangs  upon  her.  .  .  .  After  a 
thousand  unrepeatable  Invectives,  compelling  me  to  Rise 
at  Midnight,  and  retire  to  my  Study  that  I  might  there  pour 
out  my  Soul  before  the  Lord  ;  she  also  gott  up  in  a  horrid 
Rage,  protesting  that  she  would  never  Live  or  Stay  with 
me ;  and  calling  up  her  wicked  Niece  and  Maid,  she  went 
over  to  a  Neighbour's  House  for  a  Lodging.  ...  I,  with 
my  Son  Samuel^  and  my  daughter  Hannah,  retired  up  to 
my  Library,  where  we  together  .  .  .  poured  out  our  Sup- 
plications. Towards  the  morning,  I  went  unto  my  Bed, 
and  enjoy*d  some  Repose.  .  .  .  What  was  pretended  as 
the  Introduction  to  the  present,  was.  That,  forsooth,  for  a 
Day  or  two,  my  Looks  and  Words  were  not  so  very  kind  as 
they  had  been." 

August  23.  "In  the  Evening,  .  .  .  my  poor  Wife,  re- 
turning to  a  Right  Mind,  came  to  me  in  my  Study,  entreat- 
ing that  there  might  be  Eternal  Oblivion  of  every  thing 
that  had  been  out  of  point;  .  .  .  and  that  for  the  .  .  . 
further  obtaining  of  this  Felicity,  I  would  now  join  with 
her  in  pouring  out  Supplications  to  the  Lord.  ...  I  did 
accordingly.  And  the  Tokens  of  the  greatest  Inamoration 
on  her  part  ensued  upon  it." 


292  COTTON  MATHER. 

Meanwhile  another  trial  was  in  progress.  On  the 
3d  of  May,  John  Leverett,  President  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege, was  found  dead  in  his  bed.  On  the  6th,  he  was 
buried,  and  Cotton  Mather  was  one  of  his  bearers. 
Next  day,  Mather  writes  :  — 

"  The  sudden  death  of  that  unhappy  man  who  sustained 
the  place  of  president  in  our  colledge,  will  open  a  Door  for 
my  doing  of  Singular  Services  to  the  Best  of  Interests. 
Indeed  his  being  within  a  year  of  the  same  Age  with  my- 
self loudly  calls  upon  me  to  live  in  a  daily  expectation  of 
my  own  call  from  hence.  ...  I  do  not  know  that  the  care 
of  the  colledge  will  be  now  cast  upon  me :  tho'  I  am  told, 
it  is  what  is  most  generally  wished  for.  If  it  should,  I 
shall  be  in  abundance  of  Distress  about  it.  But  if  it  should 
not,  I  may  do  many  things  for  the  good  of  the  colledge, 
Omore  quietly  and  more  hopefully  than  formerly.  .  .  .  Why 
may  I  not  write  unto  the  tutors  .  .  .,  and  Sollicit  .  .  . 
That  they  would  exert  their  powers  to  make  the  Students, 
become  indeed  what  they  are  called,  and  spend  .  .  .  their 
Time  well;  and  therefore  not  content  themselves  with  the 
daily  Recitations  (the  matter  of  which  also,  ought  to  be  fur- 
ther considered)  but  assign  them  suitable  Books  to  read, 
and  see  that  they  Read  them.  That  they  encourage  So- 
dalities among  them  ;  to  meet  every  week  for  the  Com- 
munications of  their  Acquisitions  to  one  another.  That 
they  Countenance  Industry,  with  distinguished  Rewards 
...  to  the  Meritorious.  That  they  bring  up  the  use  of  the 
Latin  Tongue  in  Conversation  among  the  Scholars.  That 
above  all  things,  they  do  what  may  be  done  for  the  Anima- 
tion ...  of  PIETY  among  the  young  men :  .  .  .  cast  a  kind 
Aspect  on  those  who  Associate  for  Devotions  ;  and  ... 
establish  them  in  the  Faith  and  Order  of  the  Gospel^  in 
which  the  Churches  of  New  England  have  their  Beauty 
and  their  Safety." 

August  12.     *<  I  am  now  informed /that  the  Six  Men  who 


HIS  LAST  DIARY.  293 

call  themselves  the  Corporation  of  the  Colledge  mett,  and 
contrary  to  the  Epidemical  Expectation  of  the  Countrey, 
chose  a  modest  young  man,  of  whose  piety  (and  little  else) 
every  one  gives  a  laudable  character.  I  always  foretold-^' 
these  Two  Things  of  the  Corporation:  First,  That  if  it 
were  possible  for  them  to  steer  clear  of  me,  they  will  do 
so.  Secondly,  That  if  it  be  possible  for  them  to  act 
Foolishly,  they  will  do  so.  ...  It  proves  accordingly^ 
Now,  tho'  the  senseless  Management  of  these  men 
threatens  little  short  of  a  Dissipation  to  the  Colledge, 
yett  I  have  personally  unspeakably  to  admire  the  com- 
passion of  Heaven  to  me  on  this  occasion.  Tho'  I  have 
been  a  Man  of  Sorrows  and  acquainted  with  Griefs,  yett 
none  of  the  least  Exercises  I  have  met  withal,  was  the 
Dread  of  what  the  Generality  of  sober  people  .  .  .  desired  : 
the  Care  of  the  Colledge.  .  .  .  I  had  a  Dismal  Apprehension 
of  the  Distresses,  which  a  call  to  Cambridge  would  bring 
upon  me.  .  .  .  But  the  Sleight  and  the  Spite  of  my  Six 
Friends,  has  produced  for  me  an  Eternal  Deliverance.  I 
doubt,  I  have  expressed  myself  with  a  little  too  much  Alac- 
rity on  this  Occasion.  Lord,  help  me  to  a  wise  Behaviour  !  '* 
Next  day  he  wrote  :  '\G.  D.  Hasten,  Hasten,  O  Slothful 
Mather,  in  dispatching  thy  Treatise  of  Advice  to  the  Can- 
didates of  the  Ministry.  Thou  mayest  thereby  do  more 
Good,  than  Twenty  presidents  of  Colledges.'' 

That  very  night  was  the  one  when  his  wife  lefl  his 
house. 

A  month  later,  he  had  another  meditation  about  the 
College  :  Had  the  care  of  it  come  to  him,  it  might  have 
worried  him  to  death ;  and  who  knows  but  the  Lord, 
designing  shortly  to  call  him  from  earth,  purposely  deliv- 
ered the  College  from  a  fresh  inconvenience?  Again, 
though  as  President  he  might  have  served  God,  the 

"  Grace  which  I  have  already  received  in  that  kind,  espe- 
cially considering  my  prodigious  unworthiness,  may  well 


294  COTTON  MATHER, 

be  sufficient  for  me.  .  .  .  Finally,  The  preferring  of  a 
Child  before  me  as  my  Superiour  in  Erudition,  or  in 
Capacity  ...  to  manage  the  Government  of  an  Academy, 
or  in  piety  and  Gravity,  This  is  what  ...  it  would  be  a 
Crime  in  me  to  be  disturbed  at." 

The  "  Child  "  in  question  was  Joseph  Sewall,  son  of 
the  Judge,  and  minister  of  the  Old  South  Church.  He 
declined  the  office.  In  November  the  Corporation 
met  again. 

"The  Corporation  of  our  Miserable  Colledge,"  wrote 
Cotton  Mather,  "do  again  (upon  a  Fresh  Opportunity) 
treat  me  with  their  accustomed  Judgment  and  Malignity 
But  Oh  !  may  I  take  pleasure  in  the  Opportunity  I  have 
to  glorify  my  God  and  Saviour." 

The  choice  of  the  Corporation  fell  on  Colman,  who 
also  declined.  It  was  not  until  June,  1725,  that  a 
President  was  finally  found :  it  was  Benjamin  Wads- 
worth,  who  held  office  till  after  Cotton  Mather  died. 

Meanwhile,  in  August,  just  when  his  wife  was  at  her 
worst,  had  come  a  harder  blow  still.  On  the  20th 
he  writes :  — 

"While  I  am  this  morning,  about  projecting  of  Services 
for  the  Kingdom  of  God  ...  I  have  sad  Advice  of  His 
going  on  to  pull  down  mine  [House],  with  dreadful  Dis- 
pensations. .  .  .  My  son  Increase  is  Lost,  is  Dead,  is 
Gone.  The  Ship  wherein  he  was  bound  from  Barbadoes 
to  St.  Peter's^  had  been  out  five  Months  .  .  . ;  and  some 
singular  circumstances  of  the  Vessel  also  .  .  .  confirm  the 
Apprehension  that  it  is  perished  in  the  Sea.  Ah  !  my  Son 
Increase !  My  Son,  My  Son  !  My  Head  is  Warm,  and 
my  Eyes  are  a  Fountain  of  Tears.  —  I  am  overwhelmed  !  — 
And  this  at  a  Time  when  the  Domestic  Inhumanities  and 
Diabolisms  which  I  am  treated  withal,  are  so  Insupport- 


HIS  LAST  DIARY.  295 

able !  —  Oh  my  God,  I  am  oppressed :  undertake  for  me.  — 
But  the  Soul  of  the  Child  ! —  If  the  purposes  which  he  left 
in  my  Hands  were  Sincere,  and  His  Heart  went  with  his 
pen,  —  All  is  well  !  —  Would  not  my  God  not  have  me  to 
hope  so  ?  —  My  Saviour  yett  affords  me  this  Light  in  my 
Darkness,  that  He  enables  me,  to  o£Eer  up  all  the  Sacrifices 
He  calls  me  to." 

In  September  came  a  rumour  that,  after  all,  the  ship 
in  which  Increase  sailed  was  safe;  but  a  day  or  two 
later  comes  this  note  :  — 

"  The  Good  News  of  poor  Creasy's  being  Rescued  and 
Releeved  from  Death  is  all  come  to  nothing:  Twas  apother 
Vessel.     O  my  Father^  Thy  Will  be  doneP 

Later  still  comes  a  supplication  "with  a  special  Regard 
unto  the  sad  case  of  my  son  Increase;  that  I  may  have 
Light  arise  in  Darkness  to  me  under  it ;  .  .  .  and  that 
the  Discourse^  which  it  has  awakened  me  to  prepare  for 
the  public  may  be  published  and  prospered." 

Late  in  November,  as  I  have  said.  Cotton  Mather 
fell  very  ill.  For  fiv^  weeks  he  was  unable  to  make 
entries  in  his  diary.  As  I  have  said,  those  he  made 
when  he  grew  better  show  him  broken  in  health  and 
mind  as  never  before.  I  will  cite  but  one  :  it  is  the  last ; 
and  one,  I  think,  with  which  he  would  have  chosen  to 
bid  us  farewell. 

"February  7.  1724-5.  LordVDay.  When  I  sitt  alone 
in  my  Languishments,  unable  to  Write  or  to  Read,  I  often 
compose  Little  Hymns  agreeable  unto  my  present  circum- 
stances, and  Sing  them  unto  the  Lord.  Vast  numbers  have 
I  had  of  these,  which  are  immediately  all  Forgotten.  But 
tho'  none  of  them  have  been  hitherto  recorded,  I  will  here 
insert  one  of  them ;  inasmuch  as  I  design  to  use  it  again, 
and  often  upon  occasion.     Having  found   my   Mind  for 


296  COTTON  MATHER, 

some  time  without  such  precious  and  Impressive  Thoughts 
of  God  my  Saviour,  as  are  the  Life  of -my  Spirit,  I  thus 
mourn'd  and  Sung  unto  the  Lord :  — 

**  O  glorious  Christ  of  God  !    I  Live 
In  Views  of  Thee  Alone. 
Life  to  my  gasping  Soul,  Oh  !  Give! 
Shine  Thou,  or  I  'm  undone. 

**  I  cannot  Live,  my  God,  if  Thou 
Enliven'st  not  my  Faith ! 
r  m  Dead  ;  I  'm  Lost ;  Oh  !  Save  me  now 
From  a  Lamented  Death. 

"  For  the  Return  of  my  Health  I  added: 

**  My  glorious  Healer  now  Restore 
My  Health,  and  make  me  whole. 
But  this  is  what  I  most  implore : 
Oh,  For  an  Healed  Soul." 


XVI. 

The  Last  Days  of  Cotton  Mather. 

1 724-1 728. 

In  this  year,  1724,  Cotton  Mather's  youngest  surviv- 
ing daughter,  Elizabeth,  had  married  one  Edward 
Cooper.  In  this  year,  too,  Benjamin  Franklin  saw  him 
for  the  last  time.  In  Franklin's  Autobiography,  the 
prince  of  self-made  Yankees  tells  that  one  of  the  books 
that  most  influenced  his  youth  was  Cotton  Mather's 
"Essays  to  Do  Good,"  ^  —  a  work  in  which  Mather 
insisted  on  a  point  that  was  always  dear  to  him,  the 
importance  of  combined,  co-operative  effort.  In  1724, 
Franklin,  better  dressed  than  usual,  came  home  for  a 
few  weeks  from  his  first  expedition  to  Philadelphia. 
Among  other  visits,  the  young  man  paid  one  to  Cotton 
Mather,  in  the  study  where  a  placard  bearing  the 
words  "Be  Brief"  warned  visitors  that  they  had  to  do 
with  the  busiest  of  men.  When  Franklin  took  leave, 
Mather  showed  him  out  through  a  dark  passage,  and, 
as  the  youth  was  walking  ahead,  suddenly  called  out, 
"  Stoop  !  "  Not  understanding,  Franklin  took  an- 
other step  and  bumped  his  head  against  a  projecting 
beam.  Whereupon  Mather  warned  him  that,  through- 
out life,  he  would  find  judicious  stooping  a  great  means 
of  avoiding   trouble.     So   they   parted.     Years   after- 

1  See  Sibley,  III.  102,  103.     The  book  was  published  in  1710. 


298  COTTON  MATHER, 

wards  Franklin  wrote  Samuel  Mather  that  he  had 
never  forgotten  the  useful  counsel. 

For  the  remaining  three  years  of  Cotton  Mather's  life, 
I  find  no  record  that  shows  him  other  than  we  have  seen 
him.  Between  the  beginning  of  1725  and  the  end  of 
1728,  Sibley  shows  that  no  less  than  fifty  of  his  pubU- 
cations  appeared,  —  sermons,  books  of  good  counsel, 
and  so  on.  In  general,  one  may  say  that  his  published 
work  was  historical,  biographical,  expository,  and  hor- 
tatory :  its  chief  features  are  lives  of  good  people, 
instructions  as  to  how  good  may  be  done,  explanations 
of  Scripture  and  of  various  points  of  godliness,  and 
such  scientific  instruction  as  appeared  in  his  writings 
about  inoculation.  Considering  how  much  he  wrote 
and  how  actively  he  busied  himself  with  public  affairs, 
it  is  amazing  that  he  left  behind  so  little  controversial 
writing.  The  fact  is,  I  take  it,  that  he  was  from  the 
beginning  so  convinced  of  the  essential  authority  of 
the  clergy,  that,  except  under  very  great  provocation, 
argument  of  any  kind  seemed  needless  in  one  of  his 
profession. 

In  August,  1726,  his  daughter  Elizabeth  died,  leav- 
ing children.  Of  his  own  fifteen  children  only  Samuel 
and  Hannah  survived  him. 

In  December,  1727,  he  fell  ill.^ 

"  My  Last  Efiemy  is  come,"  he  said,  "  I  would  say  my 
Last  Friend. ^^ 

He  lay  ill  five  or  six  weeks.  On  Thursday,  February 
8th,  he  began  to  suffer  with 

"  an  hard  Cough  and  a  suffocating  Asthma  with  a  Fever; 
but  he  felt  no  great  Pain ;  he  had  the  sweet  Composure 

1  S.  Mather,  Life,  VII.  3,  4. 


HIS  LAST  DAYS.  299 

and  easy  Departure^  for  which  he  had  entreated  so  often 
2in6.  fervently  the  sovereign  Disposer  of  all  Things." 

On  Sunday,  writes  Samuel  Mather, 

"I  asked  him  what  Sentence  or  Word  .  .  .  He  would 
have  me  think  on  constantly^  for  I  ever  desired  to  have  him 
before  me  and  hear  him  speaking  to  me.  He  said,  *  Re- 
member only  that  one  word  FructuosusJ  ^  " 

On  Tuesday,  February  13th,  1728,  —  the  day  after 
his  sixty-fifth  birthday,  —  he  died. 

Sewall  describes  the  last  scene  of  all :  — 

"Monday,  Febr.  19.  Dr.  Cotton  Mather  is  intombed: 
Bearers,  The  Rev'd.  Mr.  Colman,  Mr.  Thacher;  Mr. 
Sewall,  Prince;  Mr.  Webb,  Cooper.  The  Church  went 
before  the  Corps.  First,  the  Rev'd  Mr.  Gee  ^  in  Mourning 
alone,  then  3  Deacons,  then  Capt.  Hutchinson,  Adam 
Winthrop  esqr.  Col.  Hutchinson  —  Went  up  Hull  street. 
I  went  in  a  Coach.  All  the  Council  had  gloves;  I  had  a 
pair.  It  seems  when  the  Mourners  returned  to  the  House, 
Mr.  Walter  said,  My  Bror.  had  better  Bearers:  Mr.  Prince 
answered,  They  bore  the  better  part." 

1  Fruitful. 

*  Cotton  Mather's  colleague  at  the  North  Church. 


XVII. 

Cotton  Mather,  the  Puritan  Priest. 

Before  Cotton  Mather's  tomb  was  fairly  closed,  then,    j 
men  who  had  known  him  best  were  whispering  among    ] 
Ttlieixisdvesother th^good IhingTconceming  the  deadA  i 
Posterity  has  held  them  right.     A  subtle  ^priest,  self- ' 


seeking,  vain,  arrogant,  inconsistent,  mischievous  in  his 
eternal  business,  many  have  called  him  :  even  if  honest, 

dreadlufiy  deluded  and  grotesquely  lapking^  in^judgment,  '^  ' 

is  what  those  mostly  say  who  say  the  best.     And  if  we  • 

had  only  public  records  to  guide  us,  I  should  be  dis-  < 

posed  to  assent.  ^ 

The  son  of  Increase  Mather,  the  grandson  of  John  i 

Cotton  and  of  Richard  Mather,  sprung  of  a  race  of  j 

chosen  vessels  of  the  Lord,  himself  a  chosen  vessel  be-  j 

fore  his  boyhood  was  fairly  closed,  intoxicated  with  such  i 

adulation  as  Urian  Oakes  spoke  when,  the  youngest  of  : 

Harvard  graduates,  he  took  his  degree,  he  began  his  half-  ] 

century  of  earthly  work.     Full  of  the  traditions  of  the  | 
fathers,  he  pressed  on,  divinely  authorized  to  lead  the 

people  of  God  in  the  path  of  salvation  :  whoeverwould  ■ 

not  follow  was  godless.     Then  he  saw  his  father's  great  ; 

work  in  England;   and  meanwhile  did  great  work  at  ; 

home.  ^jJfi-sa^theJxranny^oTAn^^           his  prayers  ! 

were  answered.     ]^e  saw  Phipps  come  with  the,jiew  j 

Charter:    New  Englandwas^sayed.     Now  he  might  i 


THE  PURITAN  PRIEST  301 

lead  on  more  confidently  still.  And  he  plunged  into 
tjie  honrors  of  witchcraft.  And  he  saw  theocracy  fall 
with  poor  Sir  William  Phipps.  And  he  saw  Harvard 
CoUegeHiost  to  the  cause  of  the  fathers.  And  he  saw 
the  verj^churchesof  Boston  preaching  new  doctrines, 
full  of  dejusion.  For  ^\t  and  thirty  years  he  saw  the 
clergy  of  New  England  started  on  the  course  in  which 
they  still  travel :  from  a  position  where  the  influence  of 
the  church  was  greater  than  anywhere  else  in  the  world, 
to  one  where  the  influence  of  the  church  has  become 
almost  imperceptible.  And  he  fought  against  fate  with 
every  weapon  he  could  clutch  ;  and  he  believed  his  own 

^  advancement  was  what  God  needed  to  restore  His  king- 
dom ;  and  some  of  the  blows  he  struck  —  and  for  aught 
I  know  many  of  them  —  may  have  been  foul  ones. 

But  before  we  can  judge  him  aright,  we  must  strive  ' 
to  see  him  as  he  saw  himself.     This  is  what  I  have 
tried  to  do.     I  have  told  his  story  perhaps  too  much 
in  his  own  words.     By  no  other  means  could  I  show 
so  simply  what  seems  to  me  the  truth :    that  with  a 
depth  of  human  nature  which  makes  him  above  most, 
men  who  have  lived  a  brother  man  to  all  of  us,  he  never  ^ 
ceased  strivingj  amid  endless  stumbling'^  ^riH  prrnrs^  tQ_; 
do  his  duty. 

It  was  his  lot  to  possess  a  mind  and  a  temperament 
more  restlessly  active  than  most  men  ever  know.  With 
this  nature,  it  was  his  lot  to  live  all  his  life  in  a  petty 
provincial  town,  further  removed  from  the  great  current 

^  of  contemporary  Ufe  than  any  spot  to-day  in  the  civil- 
ized world.  And  this  he  never  realized ;  nor  have  any 
of  those  realized  who  have  sat  to  judge  hirti.  His  grand- 
fathers, and  the  other  founders  of  New  England,  came 


302  CO  TTON  MA  THER, 

from  the  midst  of  the  seething  England  which  was  soon 
to  dethrone  the  Stuarts,  full  of  the  passion  of  a  contest 
that  had  been  to  every  one  of  them  the  greatest  of 
earthly  realities.  His  father's  life  had  brought  the 
elder  man  face  to  face  with  kings  and  bishops :  In- 
crease Mather  had  fought  hard  to  preserve  and  to  per- 
petuate a  Puritanism  whose  pristine  freshness  was  still 
within  his  own  memory.  But  when  Cotton  Mather's 
time  came,  Puritanism  —  like  Anglicanism  itself — was 
(already  not  the  great  reality  it  had  once  been :  it  had 
'  become  a  tradition.  The  world  travels  faster  nowadays. 
The  Civil  War  is  already  such  a  tradition  to  us. 

This  p;rea_t_JjaditLon  of  PurUanismJhe  fought  so  pas- 
siQnatfi|y^tojdeiendJiadJl]LiL-th&  s^^ds  nf  a  griny  un- 
truthful  formalism,  which  has  made  it  seem  to  many 
men  of  later  times  a  gloomy  delusion,  fruitful  only  of 
limitation  and  of  cant.  Those  who  see  in  it  only  or 
chiefly  this,  forget  what  even  to  Cotton  Mather  himself 
was  its  greatest  truth.  Few  human  philosophies  have 
been  more  essentially  ideal ;  few  systems  formulated  by 
men  have  so  strenuously  kept  before  the  minds  of  those 
who  accept  them  the  transitory  unreality  of  those  things 
which  human  beings  can  perceive,  the  eternal  and  infi- 
nite reality  of  the  Divine  universe  that  lies  beyond  hu- 
man ken.  Once  learn  this,  and  nothing  on  this  earth 
is  so  great  as  to  deserve  a  care,  when  we  think  of  the 
infinite  realities  beyond ;  nor  anything  on  this  earth  so 
mean  as  not  to  be  a  manifestation  of  divine  truth.  At 
onQe  contemptible  and  reverend,  this  earthly  life  of 
ours  is  but  the  fragment  of  an  instant  in  the  timeless 
eternities  of  God.  But  to  the  Puritans,  it  was  an  in- 
stant in  which  the  infinite  mercy  of  God,  with  free 


THE  PURITAN  PRIEST.  3O3 

grace  mitigating  His  infinite  justice,  gave  every  living 
man  the  chance  and  the  hope  of  finding  in  himself  the 
0  signs  of  eternal  salvation.  It  is  not  every  man  who  can 
rise  to  such  heights  of  idealism  as  this  :  whoever  cannot 
or  will  not  so  rise,  whoever  cannot  feel  beneath  the 
austere  pettiness  of  Puritanism  the  passionate  enthusi- 
asm that  made  things  unseen  —  Hell  and  Heaven,  the 
Devil,  and  the  Angels,  and  God  —  greater  realities  than 
anything  this  side  of  eternity,  can  never  even  guess  what 
Puritanism  meant. 

On  its  earthly  side,  however,  Puritanism  had  a  trait 
which  has  been  more  generally  recognized,  though  not, 
perhaps,  more  fully  understood.  In^itsj)rigin__lLwas 
Protestant^  It  began,  and  it  gained  earthly  strength,  in 
a  passionate  revolt  of  human  thought  from  those  phases 
of  ecclesiastical  tradition  which  human  experience  had 
proved  false  and  wicked.  God*s  Jiv<^^^^  ^ontt^i^*'  God*s 
truth,  the  first  Protestants  cried ;  we  will  read  itJoLOur^ 
se^^s,  none  but  GcKLshall  be  our^ide.  So,  Bible  in 
hand,  they  led  the  way  for  who  would  follow ;  and  when 
they  were  gone  far  enough  to  muster  their  forces,  they 
would  have  cried  halt.  But  what  authority  had  they  to 
^top  the  progress  they  had  urged?  God's  world  con- 
tains God's  truth,  cried  those  of  their  followers  whose 
spirit  came  nearest  to  that  of  the  leaders  :  let  us  read  it 
there,  and  read  it  each  for  himself;  none  but  God  shall 
be  our  guide.  And  those  who  press  ever  onward,  seek- 
ing God's  truth  each  for  himself,  are  the  Protestants  of 
to-day.     Protestantism  can  have  no  priesthood. 

This  truth  Cotton  Mather  never  guessed.  To  this 
day  honest  Protestant  Christians  are  blind  to  it.  Nor 
did  he  guess,  either,  some  other  truths  which  modem 


304  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

Protestant  Christianity  equally  fails  to  recognize.  The 
priestly  office,  let  it  derive  its  authority  from  Rome  or 
Canterbury,  Geneva  or  Utah,  demands  in  those  who 
exercise  it  even  most  fervently  a  trait  which  in  its  most 
obvious  form  the  priests  are  the  first  to  condemn,  — 
histrionic  insincerity.  Placed  before  men  as  an  accred- 
ited spiritual  leader,  the  priest  —  whatever  his  mood  or 
his  character  —  must  conduct  himself,  at  least  in  his 
public  functions,  as  if  he  were  what  no  human  being 
ever  was  or  can  be,  —  wholly  given  up  to  the  service  of 
God.  And  the  adulation  of  the  worshippers  who  see 
in  him  an  ever  present  minister  of  God  strengthens  him 
year  by  year  in  the  power  in  which  applause  strength- 
ens the  actor :  the  power  of  seeming  at  will  to  be  what 
in  the  depths  of  his  heart  he  is  not.  To  gain  this 
power,  to  strengthen  it,  is  part  of  the  priest's  duty. 
And  there  is  no  way  of  strengthening  it  so  certain  as 
the  way  Cotton  Mather  took,  like  the  saints  of  Rome 
before  him.  Day  after  day,  week  alter~week,  month 
after  month,  year  after  year,  he^castJiiuiself  in^the  ,dust 
^efore  the  Lord ;  he  strained  his  eyes  for  a  fleeting 
glimpse  of  the  robes  and  crowns  of  God's  angels,  his 
ears  for  the  faintest  echo  of  their  celestial  music.  Pure 
in  motive,  noble  in  purpose,  his  whole  life_was_pne 
unending  effort  to  strengthen  in  himself  that  phase_af 
human  nature  whose  inner  tokenis  ajJQt^f  mystical 
emotion  J  whose  outward  signs  are  unwitting  manifesta- 
tions of  unfettered  credulity  and  unmeant  fraud. 

Yet  it  is  not  as  a  sly  and  superstitious  priest  that  I 
remember  him  to-day :  any  more  than  I  think  that  sly- 
ness and  superstition  to-day  make  up  the  character  of  a 
Christian  minister.     In  the  first  place,  the  passionate 


THE  PURITAN  PRIEST  305 

^idealism  to  which  he  held  with  all  his  heart  —  like 
honest  priests  since  the  worid  began  —  coloured,  and  / 
glorified,  and  made  divine,  even  the  meanest  things  in  I 
the  petty  earthly  life  he  knew.  A  squatting  dog  brought 
him  a  message  straight  from  the  throne  of  God.  In 
the  second  place,  the  life  he  lived  —  with  all  its  gro- 
tesque pettiness  —  was  the  life  which  had  in  it  the  seeds 
of  that  great  continental  life  in  which  lies  the  chief  hope 
of  the  modem  world.  To  understand  the  America  of 
to-day,  we  must  know  the  New  England  of  the  fathers ; 
to  know  the  first  New  England  of  the  fathers,  there  is 
no  better  way  than  to  study  this  man,  —  its  last,  its 
most  typical  incarnation.  And  as  we  study  him,  and 
then  look  back  at  the  figure  that  emerges  from  the  dusty 
books  and  manuscripts  of  two  centuries  ago,  the  final 
trait  of  him,  that  hides  the  rest,  is  this :  strenuously, 

C'devoutly,  he  did  what  he  deemed  his  dutyT 

All  about  him  he  saw  ever  crescent  disappointment 
and  sorrow  and  earthly  failure  ;  but  he  never  lost  heart, 
not  ever  for  a  moment  ceased  effort,  with  word  and  deed 
alike,  to  do  good  to  mankind.  Fructuosus  —  be  fruit- 
ful, do  God*s  work  here  on  earth  —  was  his  last  com- 
mand to  his  son.  And  the  incessant  training  of  his 
career  in  the  art  that  in  its  meaner  form  he  would  have 
been  the  first  to  execrate,  —  the  art  of  the  actor,  who 
can  at  will  seem  to  be  what  in  truth  he  is  not,  —  made 
him  what  it  makes  good  ministers  to-day.  More  than 
other  men  they  can  sympathize  with  mankind  :  in  agony, 
in  sorrow,  in  sin,  men  turn  to  them  for  aid,  for  counsel, 
for  charity  in  all  its  divinest  forms.  And  this  the  saintly 
actors  give  as  no  other  men  can,  thus  doing  good  un- 
speakably reverend.  The  very  weakness  of  their  calling, 
20 


306  CO  TTON  MA  THER. 

SO  palpable  to  those  who  have  not  known  their  benefi- 
cence, —  so  fruitful  of  obloquy  and  execration  in  those 
who  neither  share  their  faith  nor  will  let  themselves 
sympathize,  —  makes  them  more  blessed  to  mankind 
than  a  thousand  of  their  more  candid  fellows.  Out  of 
evil  God  brings  good  :  it  is  the  histrionic  insincerity  of 
^priesthood  that  brings  to  unhappy  men  the  Divine  sym- 
pathy of  priests.  And  in  his  ministry  Cotton  Mather 
never  faltered :  with  ever  growing  earnestness,  he  went 
through  that  grim  and  sorrowful  old  New  England,  in 
every  deliberate  thought  and  act  ministering  to  the 
bodies  and  the  souls  of  the  people  of  God.  Fructuosus 
—  fruitful  —  is  the  final  word  for  him. 

And  what  fruit  has  his  priesthood  borne  that  is  with 
'  us  to-day?  New  England  is  far  enough  from  the  stem 
creed  in  which  alone  he  saw  hope  of  salvation.  But 
not  long  ago  an  old  friend,  talking  of  the  New  England 
that  both  of  us  love,  spoke  a  phrase  I  like  to  remem- 
ber :  **  We  have  here,"  he  said,  "  what  the  world  has 
^  never  seen  before  :  we  have  devout  free  thought."  It 
is  the  Protestantism  of  the  fathers  that  has  won  us  our 
freedom.  But  freedom  alone  were  a  curse.  It  is  the 
faithful  earnestness  of  the  Puritan  priesthood  that  has 
kept  our  freedom  from  straying  into  that  pert  irrever- 
ence which  elsewhere  than  here  has  made  so  many  who 
cast  aside  the  false  cast  with  it  the  true.  And  among 
the  Puritan  priests  there  was  never  one,  I  believe,  more 
faithfully  earnest  than  this  Cotton  Mather. 

One  hundred  and  sixty-three  years  have  passed  since 
he  was  laid  in  his  father's  tomb  on  Copp's  Hill.  And 
few  of  us  to-day  can  believe  that  he  is  gone  to  such 
a  little  company  of  God's  elect  as  would  make  the 


THE  PURITAN  PRIEST  307 

heaven  he  preached  of.  If  he  be,  then,  when  by 
chance  he  looks  back  at  the  earth  where  he  laboured, 
he  must  see  a  sight  that  for  the  instant  should  dim  the 
joys  of  Paradise.  But  there  are  not  a  few  to-day  who 
dream  of  a  heaven  in  whose  blessedness  all  the  fetters 
of  humanity  are  broken ;  where  what  is  best  in  men 
waxes  better  than  men  can  even  dream,  amid  the  ever- 
growing glories  of  eternal  freedom  from  sin,  and  weak- 
ness, and  sorrow.  And  if  by  chance  his  eyes  have 
opened  again  in  a  heaven  like  this,  and  if  from  thence 
he  looks  back  to  an  earth  where  his  sins  and  errors 
have  borne  little  fruit,  but  where  the  devoutness  of  the 
free  thought  of  New  England  speaks  still  for  what  was 
best  in  his  human  hfe,  he  sees,  I  like  to  think,  little 
that  should  disturb  the  great  serenity  of  his  peace. 


AUTHORITIES. 


The  books  I  have  cited  are  these  :  — 

Andros  Tracts,  3  vols.    Boston :  Prince  Society,  1868- 

1874. 

Calef,  Robert:  More  Wonders  of  the  Invisible  World, 
etc.     Salem :  Gushing  and  Appleton,  1823. 

Massachusetts  Historical  Society:  Collections:  — 
Fourth  Series,  Vol.  VIII.:  The  Mather  Papers,  1868. 
Fifth  Series,  Vols.  V.-VII. :  Sewall's  Diary,  1 878-1 882. 
Sixth  Series,  Vols.  I.,  II. :  SewalFs  Letter-Book,  1886- 
18S8. 
Mather,  Cotton :  Manuscript  diaries  in  possession  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  Boston;  of  the  American 
Antiquarian  Society,  Worcester,  Mass. ;  and  of  the  Con- 
gregational Library,  Boston. 

Magnalia    Christi   Americana.      Hartford :     Silas 

Andrus  and  Son.     Vol.  I.,  1855;  Vol.  II.,  1853. 

Parentator.     Boston:  Nathaniel  Belknap,  1724. 

Paterna  (manuscript),  in  possession  of  Mrs.  Skin- 
ner of  Chicago. 

Mather,  Samuel :  Life  of  Cotton  Mather.  Boston :  Sam- 
uel Gerrish,  1729. 

Palfrey,  John  Gorham:  Compendious  History  of  New 
England,  4  vols.     Boston:  J.  R.  Osgood  &  Co.,  1884. 

Peabody,  Wm.  B.  O. :  Life  of  Cotton  Mather.  Sparks's 
American  Biographies,  Vol.  VI.  Boston  :  Hilliard,  Gray, 
&  Co.,  1836. 

Quincy,  Josiah :  History  of  Harvard  University,  2  vols. 
Cambridge:  John  Owen,  1840. 


3IO  AUTHORITIES. 

Sibley,  John  Langdon:  Harvard  Graduates,  Vol.  III. 
Cambridge :  Charles  William  Sever,  1885. 

Upham,  Charles  W. :  Salem  Witchcraft,  2  vols.  Boston  : 
Wiggin  and  Lunt,  1867. 

The  numerous  standard  books  I  have  consulted  I  need 
not  name.  I  may  perhaps,  however,  mention  the  remark- 
able impression  of  Puritan  ways  of  thought  that  may  be 
obtained  by  reading  the  first  two  volumes  of  Stedman 
and  Hutchinson's  **  Library  of  American  Literature  "  ; 
and  the  notable  suggestiveness  of  Mr.  Brooks  Adams's 
**  Emancipation  of  Massachusetts.'* 


INDEX. 


Adams,  Brooks,  his  "  Emanci{)ation 
of  Massachusetts,"  310. 

Adultery,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of,  57, 
163,  166,  168,  219. 

Afflations,  28,  1441  .«57»  »79»  >88;  In- 
crease Mather's  view  of,  28. 

Allen,  Rev.  Mr.,  59,  137. 

America,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of,  88, 
9»i  «59»  »^»2-     ^^f  England. 

Andros.  Sir  Edmund,  Governor  of 
New  Eir^^land,  arrival,  43  sey.,  69; 
life  and  diameter,  70;  tyranny,  71 
Sfa.,  75 ;  deposed  by  Revolution,  76  ; 
subsequent  career,  77 ;  mentioned, 
80,  89,  190,  300. 

•'  Andros  Tracts,"  73. 

Angels,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of,  52, 
65,  80,93.  itssrg.,  144  set/. ^  M9.  »5>i 
157,  162  sfg.,  165  sfg.,  168  J<r^.,,i7»» 
176,  179,  186,  195,  206,  279;  vision 
of,  63. 

Anne,  Queen,  191,  220,  249. 

Ajwstasy,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of,  68, 
149;  Increase  Mather's  view  of,  141. 
Sff  Brattle  Street  Church. 

A<%surances,  of  Cotton  Mather,  49  se^.^ 
61  seq.^^4  seq.,c)2seg.,  116,  119,  122, 
■  140.^^^.,  144  seg.^  14S  sfg.,  155  seg.^ 
162  seg.y  167  seg.y  174  seg.j  181,  186, 
18S,  193  seq.,  206,  2  to,  214,  264,  269, 
277,  2S4,  2qo ;  of  Increase  Math- 
er, 47.  72.  »4.  '36  Sfg.,  139,  284 
See  Particular  Faiths,  Premonitions, 
Presences  of  God. 

Atticism,  temptations  to,  25,  81,  206, 
230-. 

Attention  to  Divine  Services,  Cotton 
Mather's,  55,  169. 

Banister,  John,  libels  Cotton  Math- 
er, 232  seg. 

Bellomont,  Earl  of,  Governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, 130,  1405^'^.,  144  seg.,  151. 

Dishop,  Bridget,  hanged  for  witchcraft, 
98,  1 10. 

Blackmore,  Sir  Richard,  236. 


Books,  Cotton  Mather  favors  hawking 
of,  54»  244,  248;  gives  away,  60,  85, 
175,  1795^^.,  212,  215  ;  works  with, 
despite  devils,  112  seg.  See  Library, 
Writings. 

Boston,  in  Lincolnshire,  8  seg.  ;  in 
Massachusetts,  9,  31,  55,  71,  76,  87, 
100,  276  seg.y  285,  301. 

Bradstreet,  Simon,  Governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, 41. 

Brattle,  Thomas,  Treasurer  of  Harvard 
College,  144,  150. 

Brattle,  Rev.  William,  of  Cambridge, 
73»  ^l^y  '4'.  «42  seg.,  144,  150,  201. 

Brattle  Street  Church  (Fourth  Church 
of  Boston),  origin,  141  seg.  ;  mani- 
festo, 142;  troubles  concerning,  143, 
147  seg  ;  assurances  of  Cotton 
Mather  concerning,  148  seg.  ;  men- 
tioned, 150,  185. 

Bridge,  Rev.  M:r.,  Minister  of  Old 
Church,  225  seg.f  234,  252. 

Eromfield,  Mr.,  i86,  196,  229. 

Burgess,  Colonel,  Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts, 249, 

Burnet,  William,  Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts, 273. 

Burroughs,  Rev.  George,  hanged  for 
witchcraft,  loi. 

Byiield,  Colonel,  Speaker  of  the  House, 
»39.  199- 

Calbp,  Robert,  his  "  More  Wonders 
of  the  Invisible  World,"  105,  108, 
136,  1^0  seg.,  179;  cited,  loi ;  Cotton 
Mather's  view  of,  118,  151,  169,  182, 
186. 

Calvin  sweetens  Cotton's  mouth,  12. 

Charles  II.,  23,  40,  46,  62,  84,  93. 

Charters  of  Harvard  College,  of  1650, 
granted  by  General  Court,  131,  133; 
falls  with  Charter  of  Massachusetts, 
134.  Of  1692,  granted  by  Phipps,  135; 
vetoed  by  King  William,  137.  Of 
1696,  passed  by  Council  and  opposed 
by  ministers,  137.  Of  1697,  drawn  by 


312 


INDEX. 


I.  Mather,  and  passed,  r^8  ;  vetoed 
by  King  William,  140.  Of  1699,  pro- 
posed by  Rellomont,  140;  sectarian 
Sroviso  inserted,  141  ;  vetoed  by 
lellomont,  141.  Of  1700,  King  ad- 
dressed for,  144.  Of  1703  and  1705, 
suggested  by  Dudley,  202,  220.  Of 
1650,  revived  irregularly  by  Gen- 
eral Court  and  Dudley,  224  seg. 

Charters  of  Massachusetts,  First  or 
Colonial,  history  and  fall,  24,  30  seq  , 
46;  legal  consequences  of  fall,  71  ; 
attempts  to  renew,  74 ;  prospect  of 
restoration,  77  ;  hopelessly  lost,  79  ; 
mentioned,  21,23,92,  131.  Second 
or  Provincial,  grant  and  character  of, 
86,  91,  152,  300  ;  how  received,  87; 
quarrels  concerning,  125. 

Chauncy,  Rev.  Charles,  President  of 
Harvard  College,  18,  132,  137,  179. 

Cheever,  Ezckiel,  schoolmaster,  34. 

Christ  Church,  Boston,  290. 

Church  of  England,  5,  19,  43,  68,  71, 
»74>  235,  2S2,  289  seq. 

Civil  Wars,  effect  on  New  England, 
21,  39- 

Colman,  Rev.  Benjamin,  of  Brattle 
Street  Church,  142,  150  seq.,  185, 
226,  246,  251,  283,  294,  299. 

Commencement  at  Harvard  College, 
j8,  37.  53,  209,  220,  238,  241,  264, 
267,  269. 

Connecticut,  15,  70,  /86,  227,  248. 

Conversation,  Cotton  ^Iatner's,  /63, 
166,  278. 

Cooke,  Elisha,  opponent  of  Provincial 
Charter,  125,  128. 

Cooper,  Edward,  marries  Elizabeth 
Mather,  297. 

Cooper,  Rev.  William,  of  Brattle 
Street  Church,  281,  299. 

Corey,  Giles,  pressed  to  death,  102. 

Correspondents  of  Cotton  Mather, 
213,235.236,238. 

Cotton,  Mrs.  Joanna,  wife  of  John,  of 
Plymouth,  171,  177. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John,  of  Boston,  his  life 
and  character,  7-13  ;  mentioned,  20, 
23.  37»  51.  57.  65,  300. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John,  of  Hampton,  251. 

Cotton,  Mrs.,  widow  of  John,  of  Hamp- 
ton, marries  Increase  Mather,  251. 

Cotton,  Rev.  John,  of  Plymouth,  dis- 
grace and  death,  163,  171  sey.,  177. 

Cotton,  Maria,  daughter,  of  John,  of 
Boston,  marries  Increase  Mather, 
20.     See  Mather. 

Cotton,  Mrs.  Sarah  (Story),  widow  of 
John,  of  Boston,  marries  Richard 
Mather,  13.  20. 

Covenant  of  Cotton  Mather,  58. 

Craighead.  Rev.  Thomas,  254. 

Creed  of  Puritans.     See  Puritans. 


Crew  of  Andros,  76  seq.^  152.  See 
Dudley,  Randolph,  Stoughton. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  4,  244. 

Cutler,  Rev.  Timothy,  President  of 
Yale  College,  282,  290. 

Daily  Life,  Cotton  Mather's,  1683,  54i 
1706,212;  1709,2^0;  X711,  237. 

Dancing  introduced  in  Boston,  44. 

Danfortb,  Rev.  Mr.,  of  Cambridge, 
103,  125. 

Death,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of,  49, 
58,  60,  68,  86;  117,  148  seg.,  157,  164, 
169  seq.f  175,  181,  204,  208,  210,  217, 
240,  243,  2S9  seq.i  275,  290,  292  seg., 
298. 

Declaration  of  Indulgence,  72. 

Deertield  sacked,  201,  209. 

De  I'oe,  Daniel,  235,  262. 

Delights,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of,  67, 
213. 

Democracy  in  New  England,  23  seg.^ 
39  se^.,  79,  124,  Jioseg.  See  Royal- 
ists, Theocracy. 

Devil,  Puritan  view  of  the,  26  seq.y  91 
seq. 

Diaries  of  Cotton  Mather,  i,  36,  47 
seq.y  84,  154,  183,  234- 

Dudley,  Joseph,  Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts, career  until  1702,  40*^^.,  76 
seq.^  190  seq. ;  app*)inted  Governor, 
i3o>  '53  i  personal  cliaracter,  200,  219, 
229,  230;  administration,  201,  219, 
220,228:  relations  with  the  Mathers, 
X30,  *53.  >99.  225  seq.^  231,  234,  238, 
251 ;  relations  with  Harvard  College, 
201,  220,  224  seq.  \  charges  against, 
200  seq.^  220,  222  seq.  ;  retirement 
and  death,  249,  273. 

Dummer,  Lieut. -Gov.  of  Massachu- 
setts, 273. 

Dwight,  Tim,  spiritual  experience,  32. 

Ecstasy  of  Cotton  Mather,  a  typical, 
49. 

Education,  Cotton  Mather's  methods 
of,  60,  163  seq.^  17s,  212  j^^.,  237, 
240,  242  seq.y  247,  258,  265. 

Ejaculations  of  Cotton  Mather,  55,  57, 
170,235. 

Election  and  the  Elect,  doctrine  of,  6, 
29 ;  examples  of,  8,  14,  16,  22,  27, 
29  seq..,  32  seq..  52,  63,  115,  119,  163 
seq..,  172,  176  seq.t  180  seq.^  210  seq. ^ 
217,  242  seq.,  247,  256,  285  seq.,  294. 

Eliot,  Rev.  John,  Apostle  to  the  In- 
dians, 27,  58  seq. ;  Cotton  Mather's 
Life  of,  84. 

Enchantments,  Cotton  Mather's  view 
of,  113. 

England,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of, 
158,  269. 

Ethics,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of,  258. 


INDEX. 


313 


Evil  speakinc:,  Cotton  Mather's  view 

of,  54.  '83,  214,241  seq. 
Evil  Spirits,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of, 

3,   25,  62  seq.y  69,  91   seg.^  99,   102, 

104,  lob  srq.,  no  seq.,  116,  118  s^q., 

122  srq.y  143,  165,  168  j^"^.,  179,  189, 

210,  240,  275. 
Executions,   65,  98  se^.^  loi  st^*t  no, 

116,  iji  seq.y  209. 
Exposition   of  Scripture  at    Harvard 

College,  184,  268. 

Fast,  a  typical  private,  59. 

Fasts  of  Cotton  Mather,  36,  57,  61,  63, 
80,  112,  114  sfq.i  X19,  140,  151,  155 
seq.f  162,  165,  167  seq.y  176,  179,  186 
srq.y  i93»  20a,  205  ^^.,210,  213,  231, 
236,255. 

Fines,  Cotton  Mather  lays  on  himself, 

Flock  of  Cotton  Mather.  See  Second 
Church. 

Foreign  Affairs,  Cotton  Mather's  in- 
terest in,  53,  61  sfq.,  155,  157,  162, 
x66,  168,  211.  238,  269. 

Foxe's  Biiok  of  Martyrs,  5,  280. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  297. 

Freemen  of  Massachusetts,  23,  39,  46, 
86.     See  Theocracy. 

French  harass  New  England,  78,  124, 
130,  201,  214,  230. 

Gbk,  Rev.  Joshua,  of  Second  Church, 

299. 
Gentlewoman  makes  love  to   Cotton 

Mather,  204  *<'^.,209. 
George  I.,  249,  273,  285. 
George  II.,  273. 
George,  Mr.,  233,  251,  255. 
George,  Madam  Lydia  (Lee),  251,  252 

seq.  ;  marries  Cotton  Mather,  255. 

See  Mather. 
Glasgow,  University  of,  makes  Cotton 

Mather  D.D.,  231  seq. 
Good  Devices, Cotton  ftlather's,  nature 

of,  231,  234;  examples  of,  234  seq.y 

237»  2i()seq.i  247  seq  ,  255,  260  seq., 

263,  266,  269,  272,  274  seq  J  281,  288 

seq.,  293. 
Granado  thrown  into  Cotton  Mather's 

bedroom,  279  seq. 
Greenough,  Anne,  elect  child,  30. 
"Guardian,"   Cotton    Mather    would 

contribute  to  the,  244. 

Hackshaw,  Robert,  publisher,  186. 


Hamilton,  Duke  of,  duel,  250. 


Harvard,  Rev.  John 


duel,  25< 
,  of  Ch; 


arlestown, 


Harvard  College,  foundation  and  early 
history,  7,  28,  1:^1  seq. ;  early  charac- 
ter, 35  seq.,  132  seq. ;  struggle  be- 
tween priesthood  and  protestantism 


.  in,  under  Increase  Mather,  45,  73 
seq.,  133  seq.,  140  s^q.,  144  sea  ,  151 
seq.  ;  progress  under  Willard,  201 
seq.,  220  seq.  ;  progress  under  Lev- 
erett,  221,  224  seq.,  227  seq.,  238, 
258,  264,  268  seq.,  282  seq.,  2S9  seq., 
292  seq. ;  later  history,  287,  294,  301; 
Cotton  Mather's  relations  with,  35 
J^^.,  60,  83,  137.  lAO  seq.,  lAAseq, 
201,  209,  221,  225  seq.f  238,  240  seq., 
258,  264,  267,  269,  283,  289,  292  seq  , 
301.  See  Brattle  Street  Church, 
Charters,  Commencement,  Over- 
seers. 

Heresy,  Cotton  Mather's  policy  to- 
ward, III. 

Hoar,  Rev.  Leonard,  President  of 
Harvard  College,  26, 132. 

Holidays  obser\ed  in  Boston,  44,  69, 
236. 

Hollis,  Thomas,  benefactor  of  Harvard 
College,  282  seq.,  285. 

Howell,  Nathaniel,  son-in-law  of  Mrs. 
Lydia  Mather,  dies  in  answer  to  Cot- 
ton Mather's  pravers,  256  seq  ,  274  ; 
Cotton  Mather  administers  estate  of, 
257,  261,  276,  289. 

Howell,  Mrs.  Nathaniel,  255  seq. 

Hubbard,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  (Clark), 
marries  Cotton  Mather,  207.  See 
Mather. 

Hull,  John,  father  of  Mrs  Samuel 
Sewall,  32. 

Hull,  Mrs.  John,  29,  59. 

Hutchinson,  Mrs.  Ann,  heretic,  7,  10, 

23- 

Hutchinson,  Colonel,  166,  299. 

Idolatry,  Cotton^ather  accused  of| 
263. 

Illicit  Trade,  201,  21J,  219,  222  seq. 

Impurities,  Cotton  Niathei^s  conscious- 
ness of,  50  seq.,  $6  seq. ,66,  157,  163, 
168,  193,  202,  204,  206,  218  seq.,  240, 
242,  266,  269, 

Inconsistency,  Cotton  Mather's,  19  «  , 
29,  145  «.,  160  tt. 

Indians,  Puritan  view  of,  26  seq.,  91 
seq.  ;  harass  New  England,  23,  71, 
78,  124,  130,  2or,  214  seq.,  228,  236, 
273  ;  CJotton  Mather's  conduct  to, 
i75»  178,  182,  187.  See  French, 
Illicit  Trade. 

Inoculation  introduced  by  Cotton 
Mather,  275  seq. ;  of  Samuel  Mather, 
277  ;  of  the  Minister  of  Roxbury,  279. 

James  II.,  41,  61  seq.,  70,  72,  74  J^^i 
89 ;  his  view  of  Harvard  ColUge, 
135- 

Journeys  of  Cotton  Mather,  118,  162, 
170,  207^215. 


314 


INDEX. 


KiDD,  Captain,  78,  130. 
King  Philip's  War,  26  seq. 
King's  Chapel,  Boston,  zyo. 
Kirk,  Colonel  Percy,  40  seq-,  47,  62, 
71,  84,  92  seq» 

Latin,  Cotton  Mather*s  notes  in,  54, 
63,  168,  288,  289. 

Letters  of  Cotton  Mather:  to  Mrs.  Jo- 
anna Cotton,  concerning  J.  Cotton's 
death,  177  ;  to  Craighead,  concerning 
Mrs.  G.,  254;  to  Dudley,  130,  153, 
190,  226 ;  to  England,  concerning 
Dudley,  222  ;  to  Mrs.  G.,  252  ;  to  a 
gentleman  in  Connecticut,  concern- 
ing Yale  College,  248 ;  to  John 
Richards,  concerning  witchcraft,  107, 
no;  to  Saltonstall,  concerning  Yale 
College,  267 ;  to  Stephen  Sewall, 
concerning  witchcraft,  102,  108  ;  to 
Shute,  concerning  Harvard  College, 
268 ;  to  Winthrop,  with  anecdote, 
250;  to  Yale,  267. 

Letters  of  Increase  Mather:  alleged 
forgery,  46;  to  Dudley,  190,  226. 

Leverett,  Rev.  John,  President  of 
Harvard  College,  73,  136,  138,  141, 
i44»  i99»  221.  225,  228,  233,  238,  264, 
268,  274,  283,  290,  292. 

Library  of  Cotton  Mather,  1^8,  179, 
197,  291,  297.     See  Books,  Writings. 

Lightning  and  Tempest,  Cotton  Math- 
er's view  of,  91,  128. 

"  Magnalia  Christi  Americana."  See 

Writings  of  Cotton  Mather. 
Manifesto.         See       Brattle     Street 

Church. 
Marlborough,  Duke  of,  193,226. 
Marriage,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of,  56, 

60.     See  Widowhood. 
Mary,  Queen,  75  j^^.,  135,  154;    her 

"Divine  Sentence,"  78. 
Massachusetts,  history  of,  21,  23,  26 
seq.^  39  seq.,  70  seq.,  86  seq.,  qo  seq., 
124  seq.,  130,  151  seq.,  190,  199  seq  , 
2\qseq.,  228,  249,   273;  population 
of,  in  1665,  31 ;   in  1709,  228. 
Mather,  Mrs.  Abigail  (Phillips),  first 
wife  of  Cotton,  68,  116,  168,  176, 181, 
188,  192  seq.,  202  seq.,  220. 
Mather,  Rev.  Dr.  Cotton,  of  Second 
Church,  ancestry,  7  seq. 
1662-3,  birth,  20. 

1663-74,  aet.  i-ii,  circumstances  of 
his  youth,  24  seq.  ;  his  childhood, 
28,  33  seq. 
1674-78,  ^t.  11-15,  at  Harvard  Col- 
lege, 35  seq.,  132  ;  begins  days  of 
fasting,  36 ;  joins  church,  37 ;  takes 
bachelor's  degree,  37. 
1679,  aet.  16,  studies  medicine,  and 
conquers  impediment  of  speech,  48.  I 


1680,  set.  17,  begins  preaching,  48; 
assistant  at  Second  Church,  49, 

1 68 1,  ait.  18  {Diary  extant),  ecsta- 
sies and  depressions.  49;  besetting 
sins,  50 ;  methods  ot  devotion,  51 ; 
particular  faith  concerning  Spanish 
Indian,  52  ;  takes  Master  s  degree, 
S3  ;  refuses  call  to  New  Haven,  53  ; 
elected  pastor  of  Second  Church, 
S3- 

J683,  aet.  20  {Diary  extanf),  daily 
habits,  54  ;  imposes  fines  on  him- 
self, 55;  meditation  in  bed,  56;  un- 
clean temptations,  ejaculations,  57. 

1685,  ajt  22  {Z?/<zry*'x/a«/),  covenant 
with  God,  58  ;  ordniation,  58  seq. ; 
pastoral  work,  59;  treatment  of 
pupils,  60;  Overseer  of  Harvard 
College,  60  ;  thoughts  of  marriage, 
60;  accession  ot  James  II.,  an- 
swering prayers  and  vows,  turns 
his  attention  to  witchcraft,  61  seq., 
84,  92  seq. ',  vision  of  angel,  63,  93  ; 
character  at  twenty-three,  65. 

1686,  aet.  23  {Diary  extant),  court- 
ship and  marriage  to  Abigail  Phil- 
lipsj  65  seq. ;  first  publication,  66  ; 
begins  housekeeping,  67  ;  porten- 
tous vision  and  illness,  68;  thanks- 
giving for  recovery,  and  resolutions 
to  oppose  superstition,  68  seq. 

1687,  aet.  24,  pastoral  work,  go. 

1688,  aet.  25,  agency  °f  Increase 
Mather,  in  England,  leaves  him 
in  sole  charge  of  Second  Church, 
73 ;  character  and  jxwition  at 
twentv-five.  79  ;  domestic  life,  81 ; 
entertains  bewitched  girl  (Good- 
win), 81,  93,  100 

1689,  aet.  26,  a  leader  in  the  Revolu- 
tion, 82. 

1690,  XX.  27,  baptizes  Sir  W  Phipps, 
86,  91 :  preaches  on  periwigs,  80 
seq. ;  Fellow  of  Harvard  College, 
83  ;  his  hasty  temper,  83. 

1691,  zet.  28,  constant  attention  to 
witchcraft,  84. 

1692,  ait.  29  {Diary  extant),  pastoral 
work  and  physical  condition,  85; 
return  of  Increase  Mather  with 
new  Charter,  rewarding  prayers, 
increases  eagerness  to  serve  God, 
^t  seq.,  in;  his  relations  with 
Phipps,  90  seq.  ;  his  character  at 
twenty-nine,  100,  105,  109;  his 
relation  to  Salem  witchcraft,  90, 
93,  98,  100  seq.,  108,  III  seq. 

1693,  aet.  30  {Diary  extant),  be- 
witched girl,  114;  pastoral  work 
and  angelic  communications,  115 
seq.\  malformed  son,  n6 ;  plans 
I*  Magnalia  "  and  "  Biblia  Amer- 
icana,"   117   seq.',    visits    Salem, 


INDEX. 


31S 


where  derils  steal  sermon,  1 18  seq. ; 
the  bewitching  of  Margaret  Rule, 
104  sea.^  118  srq. ;  his  daughter 
Mary  dies,  119;  Calef  accuses  him 
of  priestcraft,  105,  loS ;  accused  of 
witchcraft,  120;  political  conduct 
under  Phipps,  125  seq. 
i(;)04,  £t.  31,  his  last  relations  with 
Phipps,  127  seq. 

1695,  *'•  32,  portentous  hail-storm, 
128. 

1696,  act.  33  {Diary  extant),  writes 
Life  of  Phipps,  108,  155  ;  daughter 
Mehitable  accidentally  smothered, 
156;  preparing  *' Magnalia,"  137  ; 
opiwses  lay  Charter  of  Harvard 
College,  137;  excessive  cold,  156; 
deprecates  God's  wrath  concern- 
ing witchcraft,  122,  156. 

1697, 3et.  34  (Diary  extofU),  ecstasies 
and  assurances,  157;  finishes 
*'  Magnalia,"  158  ;  angelic  assur- 
,ances,  162 ;  serious  and  sacred 
hilarity,  163 ;  disgrace  of  John 
Cotton,  of  Plymouth,  163  ;  spiritual 
instruction  of  Katy,  164. 

i6^,  XX.  35  {Diary  extant\  Brattle 
Street  Church  organized,  141  seq. ; 
assurances  concerning  "  Magna- 
lia," 167 ;  overwrought  condition, 
167  seq.  \  Latin  confession,  168  ; 
prayer  against  Calef,  169 ;  over- 
work, and  flagging  attention,  169 ; 
journey  to  Salem :  popular  ap- 
plause and  brother's  grave,  170 
seq.  ;  falls  through  bridge,  171  ; 
last  sees  J.  Cotton,  of  Plymouth, 
172 ;  reflections  on  burnt  child, 
172  ;  learns  Spanish,  173. 

1699,  Jet.  36  {Diary  extant),  pastoral 
work,  ij3seq.;  mother-in-law  dies, 
174  seq.;  Nancy's  recovery  en- 
courages jjarticuiar  faith  concern- 
ing Harvard  College,  140,  lyy, 
petitions  for  sectarian  proviso  in 

•  College  Charterj  140  seq.  ;  son 
Increase  born,  with  assurances  of 
salvation,  140,  176;  assurances  for 
College  disappointed,  141 ;  death 
of  J.  Cotton,  of  Plymouth,  177; 
Brattle  Street  manifesto,  etc., 
142  seq. 

1700,  aet.  37  {Diary  extant),  attacks 
Brattle  Street  in  "Order  of  the 
Gospel,"  148;  opposes  sale  of 
drink  to  Indians,  178;  his  over- 
wrought condition,  14S,  179;  as- 
surances concerning  Brattle  Street. 
148  ;  despatches  "  Magnalia  "  for 
publication,  179;  assurances  con- 
cerning his  father  and  Harvard 
College  disappointed,  144  seq. ; 
attacked   in  "  Gospel  Order   Re- 


vived," 149 ;  none  others  to 
oppose  apostasy,  149;  Increase 
Mather  ordered  to  Cambridge  and 

foes,  144  seq. ;  attacks  Brattle 
treet  in  "  Defence  of  Evangelical 
Churches,"  150 ;  edifying  expe- 
rience with  F.  Turyl,  180  seq. ; 
edifying  experience  with  books, 
1 79  ;  Calefs  book,  encouraged  by 
Brattle  Street,  arrives,  150  seq., 
179;  son  Samuel  dies,  181 ;  friends 
vindicate  the  Mathers,  182 ;  gross 
flattery,  182. 

1701,  aet  38  {Diary  extant),  his 
general  abstinence  from  evil- 
speaking.  183  ;  prayers  against 
Calef,  a  vile  tool,"  186  ;  "  Mag- 
nalia" to  be  published,  187;  So- 
cieties for  Good  Purposes,  187 ; 
love  for  wife,  xS8 ;  premonition 
in  prayer  with  widow,  187 ;  In- 
crease Mather  deposed  from  pres- 
idency, 152;  quarrel  with  Sewall 
concerning  deposition,  153,  183 
seq. ;  interest  in  Yale  College,  186; 
assurances  concerning  "Magna- 
lia," 188;  view  of  evil  spirits,  189; 
letter  to  Dudley,  helping  appoint- 
ment, 130,  153,  190. 

1702,  jet.  39  {Diary  extant),  state  of 
mind  at  thirty-nine,  191 ;  first  vigil, 
192 ;  his  wife's  miscarriage,  192  ; 
arrival  of  Dudley,  191,  199;  par- 
ticular faiths,  etc.  during  wife's 
illness,  193  seq.',  "Magnalia" 
arrives,  196 ;  small-pox  in  family, 
196  seq. :  his  wife's  death,  iqjseq. ; 
reflections  thereon,  202  seq.  ;  ad- 
dressed by  amorous  gentlewoman, 
204. 

1703,  aet.  ^o  {Diary  extant),  troubles 
with  the  gentlewoman,  204  seq.', 
relations  with  Harvard  College, 
205 ;  courtship  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
(Clark)  Hubbard,  207;  abdicates 
office  in  Harvard  College,  201  seq, ; 
marriage  to  Mrs.  Hubbard,  and 
subsequent  condition,  208. 

1704,  aet.  41,  pastoral  work,  209. 

1705,  aet.  42  {Diary  extant),  clogs  in 
work,  210;  self-examinations,  210 
seq. ;  lengthy  prayer,  211 ;  methods 
of  education,  165,  212. 

1706,  aet.  43  {Diary  extant),  daily 
life,  2T2  seq. ;  correspondents,  213  ; 
delights,  213;  finishes  *' Biblia 
Americana,"  214;  Christianizing 
Negroes,  215;  illicit  trade  with 
Indians,  215;  journey  to  Andover, 
215;  President  Willard  dies,  221 ; 
letter  denouncing  Dudley,  222 ; 
education  of  children,  216;  hopes 
of  presidency  defeated,  221  ;  Sam- 


3i6 


INDEX. 


uel  born,  216 ;  troubles  with  John 
Oliver,  217 ;  with  Phillips  family 
concerning  illicit  trade,  217,  219; 
little  Increase  and  his  grandfather, 
218;    vile  thoughts,  218  seq. 

1707,  aet.  45  {/ragntent  of  Diary 
extant)^  interest  in  foreign  affairs, 
219;  final  breach  with  Dudley 
destroys  public  influence,  222  seq. 

1708,  aet.  45,  private  life,  229. 

1709,  aet.  46  {Diary  extant)^  Good 
Devices  begun,  231  ;  employment 
and  temptations,  230 ;  fast  on  oc- 
casion of  Dudley's  feast,  231 ;  a 
double  sermon,  231  ;  preaches 
against  Dudley,  229  seq. 

1710,  aet.  47,  made  D.  D.  by  Uni- 
versity of  Glasgow,  231 ;  libelled 
in  consequence,  232  seq.  \  preaches 
against  Dudley,  234. 

171 1,  aet.  48  (Diary  extant)^  pives 
up  copying  diaries,  234;  Good 
Devices,  235  seq  ;  a  child's  quar- 
rel, 236  ;  meets  Dudley  at  dinner, 
234;  son  Increase  begins  to  trouble 
him,  237 ;  prays  for  catalogue  of 
his  writings,  236 ;  his  mood  at 
forty-nine,  237  seq. 

1712,  aet.  49,  Dudley  orders  his  de- 
gree recognized,  238 ;  professional 
work,  238. 

17 13,  aet.  50  (Diary  extant).  Second 
Church  breaking  up,  239 ;  happily 
free  from  hypocliondria,  239 ;  con- 
scious of  impurity.  240;  vigil  con- 
cerning Salem  witchcraft,  123,  240  ; 
education  of  children,  240 ;  troubles 
with  son,  and  riotous  youth,  241 
seq.  ;  too  charitable  to  the  wicked, 
242  ;  family  affairs,  242  seq. ;  made 
F.  R.  S.,  244;  measles  in  family, 
245;  illness  and  death  of  wife, 
maid,  and  three  children,  245  seq. ; 
condition  of  family,  247  seq. ;  fa- 
vors Yale  College,  248. 

1714,  aet.  51,  letter  in  eighteenth 
century  style,  250 ;  his  mother  dies, 
250  ;  Second  Church  breaking  up, 
251 ;  preaches  scientific  astronomy, 
251. 

1715,  aet.  52,  his  third  courtship,  252 
seq.  ;  Dudley's  last  official  dinner, 
251 ;  marriage  to  Mrs.  Lydia(Lee) 
George,  255 ;  violence  in  pulpit, 
252. 

1716,  aet.  53  (Diary  extant),  first 
symptoms  of  wife's  illness,  255 
seq. ;  death  of  Howell,  answering 
prayer,  256  seq.  ;  undertakes  ad- 
ministration of  Howell's  estate, 
2S7  ;  family  affairs:  Katharine's 
last  illness.  Increase's  return  from 
sea,  Abigail's  courtship,  257  seq.  ; 


falls  into  fish-pond,  259;  Abigail 
married,  259  ;  Gov.  Shute  arrives, 
260 ;  Katharine  dies,  261 ;  wife's 
symptoms  worse,  261  ;  a  hearty 
thanksgiving,  262 ;  certifies  to 
ghost  story,  262 ;  at  Pemberton's 
death-bed,  263. 

1717,  set,  54(Z>/Viryrjr/a«/),  his  view 
of  Pemberton,  263 ;  accused  of 
idolatry,  263  ;  relations  with  Shute 
and  College,  264 ;  son  Increase 
vexes  him,  264  ;  first  grandchild, 
265  ;  at  Mrs,  Sewall's  death-bed, 
265 ;  Increase  charged  with  bas- 
tardy, 265  seq.  ;  wntes  Yale,  and 
names  Yale  College,  266  seq. 

1718,  set.  55  (^Diary  extant),  troubled 
by  growmg  apostasy  at  Harvard, 
268  sea.  ;  family  trouble,  269  seq. ; 
his  wile's  madness  transpires,  270 
seq. 

17 19^-20,  set.  56-57,  private  life,  273. 

1721,  aet.  tf9>  (Diary  extant),  Xrowh\t% 
with  Increase,  274  seq.  ;  Sam  sent 
to  college,  274  ;  Second  Church 
breaking  up,  275  ;  small-pox  in 
town  excites  him  to  introduce 
inoculation,  275  ;  popular  panic 
against  him,  276  seq- ;  Abigail 
dies,  278 ;  attempt  to  assassinate 
him,  279  seq.  ;  Increase  defends 
him,:t8o;  exhaustion,  281. 

1722,  set.  59,  conduct  concerning 
Harvard  Collepe,  282  seq. 

1723,  aet.  60,  death  of  Increase 
Mather,  283  seq. ;  position  at 
sixty-one,  2^7. 

1724,  set.  61,  writes  '*  Parentator,'* 
288;  family  troubles,  289;  Church 
of  Englandassaulting  Harvard  Col- 
lege, 289  seq. ;  retrospective  medi- 
tation, 290  seq.  ;  death  of  Leverett 
revives  hopes  of  presidency,  292  ; 
hopes  disappointed,  293  ;  wife  de- 
serts him,  291 ;  news  of  death  of 
Increase,  294;  wife  returns  peni- 
tent, 291 ;  rumors  of  safety  of  In- 
crease prove  false,  295 ;  again 
disappointed  of  presidency,  294 ; 
Elizabeth  marries,  297  :  Franklin 
visits  him,  297  ;  severe  illness,  295  ; 
his  last  hymn,  296. 

1725-27,  aet.  62-64,  life  unchanged, 

298 ;  Elizabeth  dies,  298. 
1728,  aet.  65,  last  illness,  death,  and 
burial,    298   seq. ;    character   and 
influence,  300  seq. 
Mather,  Cotton,  his  children  by  Mrs. 
Abigail  (Phillips)  Mather :  — 

1.  Abigail  (b.  and  d   bef.  1693),  81. 

2.  Katharine,  or  Katy  (b.  bef.  1693, 
d.  1716),  81,  120,  164,  174,  237, 
245.  257  seq. 


INDEX. 


317 


3.  Mary(b.bef.i6g3,d.  1693),  81,119. 

4.  Increase,  malformed  (b.  and  d. 
1603),  116,  176. 

5.  AbiRail,  or  Nibby  (b.   1694,   m. 

D.  Willard,  d.  172 1),  154,  156,  178, 

196,  237*  245.  255.  25S  seq.,  265, 
278. 

6.  Mehitabel  (b.  1695,  d.  1696),  154, 
156. 

7.  Hannah,  or  Nancy  (b.  1697,  d. 
after  172S),  140,  158,  172,  175,  178, 

197,  204,  210,  237,  245,  277  seq., 
291,  298. 

8.  Increase,  or  Creasy  or  Cressy  (b. 
1699,  d.  1724),  176,  178,  197,  214. 
a  1 8,  237,  239  seq.,  245.  247,  255 
seq.^  261,  264  seq.,  269,  273  seq-^ 
278,  280,  294  seq. 

9.  Samuel  (b.  1700,  d.  1 700-1),  178, 
181. 

Mather,  Cotton,  his  children  bv 
Mrs.  Elizabeth  (Clark- Hubbard) 
Mather:  — 

10.  Elizabeth,  or  Lizzy  (b.  1704,  ra. 

E.  Cooper,  d.  1726),  208,  236.  2431 
245,  248,  278,  297  seq. 

11.  Samuel,  Rev.  Dr.,  or  Sammy 
(b.  1706,  d.  1785),  33,  36,  165,  216, 
230,  236,  248,  256,  258,  265  seq.y 
274,  277  seq.^  291,  298  seq.  See 
Rev.  Dr.  Samuel  Mather's  '*  Life 
of  Cotton  Mather." 

12.  Nathaniel  (b.  and  d.  1709),  230. 

13.  Jerusha  (b.  17x1,  d.  1713),  237, 
243.  245.247-   . 

14.  Eleazar,  I  twnns  (b.  and  d.  1713), 

15.  Martha,  )      245,  247. 
Mather,  Creasy  or  Cressy.     See   In- 

erease,  eighth  child  of  Cotton. 

Mather,  Rev.  Eleazar,  son  of  Richard, 
i7»  25. 

Mather,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  (Clark-Hub- 
bard),  second  wife  of  Cotton,  208, 
216,  245  seq. 

Mather,  Hannah,  daughter  of  Increase. 
See  Oliver, 

Mather,  Rev.  Dr.  Increase,  of  Second 
Church,  President  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege, life  until  settled  at  Second 
Church,  XT  seq. ^  24  seq.  ;  career  until 
fall  of  Charter,  25  seq  ,  33,  37 ;  home 
career  until  agency  to  England,  44 
seq.^  58  seq  ,  72  ;  agency  to  England 
securing  new  Charier,  73  seq.,  77  seq. , 
86  seq  .,  89;  home  career  under  new 
Charter  :  relations  to  Phipps  and 
witchcraft,  84,  87,  89  seq.,  92, 98, 100, 
104  seq.,  124  seq.  \  struggle  as  Presi- 
dent to  secure  Harvard  College  to 
orthodoxy,  132  seq,  143  seq.,  184; 
private  life  meanwhile,  and  later 
career,  163,  166,  i8r,  185  seq.,  191, 
199,  207,  218,  221,  223,  225  seq.^  231 


*'^  .  239i  242,  245»  250  4^^.,  258,  268, 
273 1  275,  277,  279,  289;  death  and 
character,  283  seq.  Life  of,  by  Cot- 
ton, see  Writings,  s.  v.  Parentaior. 

Mather,  Katharine,  infant  daughter  of 
Increase,  56. 

Mather,  Mrs.  Katharine  (Holt),  first 
wife  of  Richard,  17,  74. 

Mather,  Katy.  See  Katharine,  second 
child  of  Cotton. 

Mather,  Lizzy.  See  Elizabeth,  tenth 
child  of  Cotton. 

Mather,  Mrs.  Lydia  (Lee-George), 
third  wife  of  Cotton,  255  seq.,  258^^(7., 
261  seq.,  265  seq.,  270  seq.,  2S9,  291. 

Mather,  Mrs.  Maria  (Cotton),  first  wife 
of  Increase,  20,  243,  250. 

Mather,  Mrs.  (Cotton),  second  wife 
of  Increase,  251. 

Mather,  Nancy.  See  Hannah,  seventh 
child  of  Cotton. 

Mather,  Nathaniel,  son  of  Increase, 
81,83,  170. 

Mather,  Rev.  Nathaniel,  son  of  Rich- 
ard, 166. 

Mather,  Nibby.  See  Abigail,  fifth 
child  of  Cotton. 

Mather,  Rev.  Richard,  the  emigrant, 
life  and  character,  13  seq. ;  men- 
tioned, 25,  37,  48,  57,  65,  300. 

Mather,  Mrs.  Sarah  (Story-Cotton), 
second  wife  of  Richard,  13,  20. 

Mather,  Rev.  Samuel,  son  of  Richard, 
19. 

Mather,  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel,  son  of 
Cotton,  his  "  Life  of  Cotton  Mather," 
cited,  48,  59,  82,  165,  208  seq.^  232, 
255»  257,  298  seq. ;  mentioned,  53, 
76,  179,  212. 

"  Mather  Papers,*' cited,  no,  177,  250; 
mentioned,  37,  238,  249,  262. 

May,  Samuel,  religious  impostor,  174* 

Maylem,  Joseph,  misconduct,  44,  69. 

Measles,  epidemic  in  Boston,  245  se^. 

Medicine,  Cotton  Mather's  interest  m, 
48,  211,  240,  242,  247,  266,  275  seq.t 
280. 

Ministers  of  New  England,  36,  72,  79, 
98,  103,  125,  132,  134,  140,  301.  See 
Priests,  and  all  proper  names  with 
prefix  Rev. 

Mohun,  Lord,  duel,  250. 

Monmouth,  Duke  of,  40,  41,  128. 

Moody,  Rev.  Mr.,  59,  83. 

Mottoes,  of  Cotton  Mather's  Diaries, 
53.  »S7»  167,  191;  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege, 133. 

Myles,  Rev.  Mr.,  of  King's  Chapel, 
290. 

Negroes,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of, 
120,  153,  183,  21$  seq.,  242;  Sewall's 
view  of,  183. 


3i8 


INDEX, 


New  England,  23,  31  seq.s  40  seq.^  44, 

71,  77  j^^.,  87,  92  j^^.,  282,  306.    See 

Magnalia,  Massachusetts,  Puritans. 
New  North  Church,  of  Boston,  241, 

251,  278. 
Niece  of  Mrs.  Lydia  Mather,  278,  289, 

291. 
North   Church.     See  Second  Church 

of  Boston. 
Notes  of   Sermons,     Cotton    Mather 

takes,  33,  169. 
Numbers,   Cotton    Mather's    view  of 

mystic,  18,  114,  186,  194,  206,  256, 

265. 

Oakhs,  Rev.  Urian,  President  of  Har- 
vard College,  37,  45,  132  seq,^  137, 
300. 

Occultism,  suggested  theory  of,  94 
seq.^  105,  304 ;  for  some  evidence, 
see  Afflations,  Angels,  Assurances, 
Calef,  Death,  Devil,  Ecstasy,  En- 
chantments, Evil  Spirits,  Fasts,  Im- 
furities,  Inonsistency,  Original  Sin, 
'articular  Faiths,  Pastoral  Methods, 
Physical  Condition,  Prayer,  Preach- 
ing, Premonitions,  Presences  of  God, 
Priests,  Prophecy,  Puritans,  Reputa- 
tion, Revenge,  Secrecy,  Self-exam- 
ination, Spectral  Evidence,  Temper, 
Thanksgivings,  Veracity,  Vigils,  Vis- 
ions, Witchcraft. 

Old  Church  ( First  Church  of  Boston), 
51,  119,  185. 

Oliver,  Mrs.  Hannah  (Mather),  217. 

Oliver,  John,  brother-in-law  of  Cotton 
Mather,  217. 

Onesimus,  negro  slave  of  Cotton 
Mather,  216,  242. 

Ordination,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of, 

5.9-. 
Original  Sin,  doctrine  of,  5 ;  examples 

of,  8,  14,  16,  18,  2C)  seq.,  33,  35,  81  ; 

Cotton  Mather's  view  of,  211.     See 

Self-examination. 
Overseers  of    Harvard   College,   131, 

136  seq.,  202,  268,  290. 
Oyer  and  Terminer,    Court    of,    the 

Witch-Court,  98  seq.y  10 1,  103  seq.. 


Palfrey,  John  Gorham,  his  "Com- 
pendious History  of  New  England," 
mentioned,  26,  31,  76,  97,  201,  219, 
226,  229. 

Partis,  Rev.  Samuel,  of  Salem  Village, 
98. 

Particular  Faiths,  doctrine  of,  52 ;  of 
Cotton  Mather,  concerning  Harvard 
College,  140  seq.^  144  seq.,  174 
seq.,  284  ;  concerning  Mrs.  Abigail 
Mather,  193  seq.,  203  ;  various,  56, 
i68,  172,   x88 ;  of  Increase  Mather, 


72,  141,  284.  See  Assurances,  Pre- 
monitions, Presences  of  God,  Vis- 
ions. 

Pastoral  Methods,  Cotton  Mather's 
55.  "5- 

Pastoral  Visits,  Cotton  Mather's,  54, 
59,  80,  117,  175,  179,  212  seq.,  238. 

Peabody,  Wm.  Bourne  Oliver,  his 
"Life  of  Cotton  Mather,"  11 1  seq. 

Pemberton,  Rev.  Ebenezer,  of  Old 
South,  221,  226,  231,233,239,  246, 
251  seq.^  262  seq. 

Phillips,  Abigail,  marries  Cotton 
Mather,  66.     See  Mather. 

Phillips,  Colonel,  of  Charlestown, 
father-in-law  of  Cotton  Mather,  65, 
68,  73,  187,  198,  203,  217  seq. 

Phillips,  Nl  rs  ,  inother-iu-law  of  Cot- 
ton Mather,  174. 

Phillips,  John,  brother-in-law  of  Cot- 
ton Mather,  203,  217,  220,  222,  266. 

Phipps,  Lady,  89,  129,  155. 

Phipj)s,  Sir  William,  Governor  of 
Massachusetts,  career  until  1692,  78, 
83,  86  seq.,  89  seq.  :  character,  90, 
124,  126;  relations  with  the  Mathers, 
86,  90,  98 ;  relations  with  witchcraft, 
98  seq.,  104 ;  administration,  124  seq.^ 
135  ;  quarrels,  retirement,  and  death, 
\2j  sea. ',  mentioned,  300  j^^. 

Physical  Condition,  Cotton  Mather's, 
35»  37»  48  seq.,  56  seq.,  60,  65,  68, 
85^^^.,  117,  127,  166  seq.,  173,  179, 
202,  204,  206  seq. ^  214,  235,  239  seq.f 
243»  254.  281,  288,  295,  298. 

Pierpont,  Mr.,  sues  for  degree,  268. 

Pirates  harass  New  England,  78,  130) 
209. 

Plan  of  this  book,  3. 

Populace,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of  the, 
82. 

Port  Royal,  expeditions  against,  78, 83, 
89,  219,  228. 

Prayer,  answers  to,  24  seq.,  45,  50,  55, 
61  seq.^  86  seq  ,  93, 120, 169, 203  seq.^ 

2571  274. 

Preaching,  Cotton  Mather's,  48  seq  y 
51,  55  seq.,  59,  61,  67,  80,  84  seq.,  87, 
III,  113.5^^.,  117  seq.,  126,  144,  158, 
166  seq.,  171  seq.i  179,  202  seq.,  207, 
211,  2$o  seq.,  234,  245  seq.,  2^1  seq.^ 
265,  295  ;  Cotton  Mather's  view  of, 
120,  1S2,  188,  251  seq. ;  Increase 
Mather's  view  of,  139,  146. 

Premonitions,  8,  17,  25  seq.,  47,  56, 
116,  155  j^^.,  166  seq.,  180,  187,  192, 
»9S»  259,  265 ;  Cotton  Mather's  view 
of,  27. 

Presagious  Impressions.  See  Premo- 
nitions. 

Presences  of  God,  doctrine  of,  22 ; 
Cotton  Mather's,  51,  55,  85,  87,  162, 
167 ;  Increase  Mather's,  28,  47,  49. 


INDEX. 


319 


Priests,  2,  7,  304,  306.  See  Protestant- 
ism. 

"  Primitive  Counsellors,"  Increase 
Mather's  sermon  on,  125,  136. 

Prophecy,  Cotton  Mather's    view  of, 

Protestantism,  its  incompatibility  with 
priesthood,  5,  22  seq.y  287,  303,  306  \ 
of  Harvard  College,  134,  225. 
.Puritans,  their  creed,  4  seq.^  29,  45, 
I  160;  their  policy,  7,  15,  ai  seg  ,  39, 
I  42seq.,  88,  146,  158;  their  conduct 
I  and  views,  17, 26  seq.,  2qseq ,  oi  seg. , 
I  114,  141,  160;  their  ideals  and  char- 
I     acter,  74, 159,  161,  286  seg.^  302  seg. 

Quakers,  7^  23,  84. 

Quincy,  Josiah,  President  of  Harvard 
College,  his  "  History  of  Harvard 
University,"  cited,  35,  139  seg.,  224, 
267,283;  mentioned,  131,  150,  220, 
226,  238,  282  :  his  view  of  religious 
freedom  at  Harvard  College,  133. 

RANrx)LPH,  Edward,  Royalist,  40,  46, 
^73,77.  ,      . 

Regeneration.    See  Election. 
Representatives,    Fill   to   require  resi- 

dfence  among  constituents.  126. 
Reputation,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of, 

66,  118,  120,   148  seg.y  158,  167,  169 

seg.,  205,  209  seg.y  214,  230,  277. 
Resignation,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of, 

198. 
Revenge,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of,  66, 

210  seg.,  236,  241. 
Revolution  of  1689,  75  seo.,  82. 
Richards,  John,  Judge  of  Witch-Court, 

107,  no. 
Rogers,  Rev.  John,  President  of  Har- 
vard College,  45.  «33: 
Roxbury,  Minister  of,  inoculated,  279. 
Royalists  in    New   England,   40,  125, 

200,  229,  249.    See  Andros,  Dudley, 

Randolph,  Stoughton. 
Royal  Society,  Cotton  Mather  elected 

F'ellow  of,  244  ;  publications  of,  276. 
Rule,   Margaret,   bewitched,    104,  118 

seg. 

Sabbath-keeping,  13,  43,  68,  128, 
236. 

Salem  witchcraft.  See  Upham,  Witch- 
craft. 

Sal  volatile.  Cotton  Mather's  reflec- 
tion on^  243. 

Second  Church  of  Boston,  under  the 
Mathers,  20,  24,  25,  28,  37,  49,  53, 
55,  66,  73,  85,  114  seg.,  121,  133,  139, 
ij^dseg.,  152,  182,  185,  202,  205,  212, 
216,  236, 239  j^^  ,  251,  275,  2-]C)5eg. 

Secrecy,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of,  115, 
118,  162. 


Self-examination,  of  Cotton  Mather. 
50,61,  192,  2\oseg.,  266,  290;  urged 
on  children  by  Cotton  Mather,  164, 
215,242. 

Sermonsj  Cotton  Mather's  methods  of 
prepanng,  119,  212. 

Servants,  status  of,  32,  52,  ng;  in 
Cotton  Mather's  family,  156,  197, 
202,  216,  242.  245  seg.  See  Negroes, 
Onesimus,  Slaves. 

Sewall,  Elizabeth  (Betty),  daughter  of 
Samuel,  2()seg. 

Sewall,  Mrs.  Hannah  (Hull),  wife  of 
Samuel,  229,  265. 

Sewall,  Jane,  sister  of  Samuel,  32. 

Sewall,  Rev.  Joseph,  of  Old  South, 
son  of  Samuel,  29,  262,  265,  293  seg.^ 
299. 

Sewall,  Samuel,  Chief  Justice  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, relations  to  witchcraft, 
98,  loi  seg.,  121;  relations  to  Har- 
vard College,  137, 146,  153,  184,  186, 
225,  227,  268,  283  ;  relations  with 
the  Mathers,  58  seg.,  75,  80,  128, 
138  seg,,  153,  163,  183  seg  ,  225  seg., 
220,  233,  251  seg.,26s,  285,  289,291 ; 
relations  with  Dudley,  200,  222  seo., 
225  seg.,  229;  accounts  of  public 
matters,  41  seg  ,  87,  129  ;  private  life 
and  character,  29  seg.,  34,  75,  80, 
>5».  17'.  i«5.  209,  219,  231,  233,  252, 
262.  265. 

Sewall,  Samuel,  **  Diary,"  cited,  29 
seg.,  34.  43  seg.,  58  seg.,  62,  75,  80,  83, 
87,  101  seg, i2i,  i2s  seg.,  137  seg.f 
142  seg.,  146,  151,  153,  158,  163,  171, 
183  seg.,  191,  200,  209,221  seg., 22g 
seg. ,  233  seg.,  251  seg  ,  262, 265,  268, 
285,299;  mentioned,  26,  31,41,  153, 
209,  219  f^^.,  231,238,  246,  249  seg., 
259,  283,  289. 

Sewall,  Samuel,  "  Letter-Book,"  cited, 
1855^^.,  232  ;  mentioned,  153. 

Sewall,  Stephen,Clerk  of  Court,  brother 
of  Samuel,  102  seg.'.  Cotton  Mather's 
letter  to,  108. 

Shepard,  Rev.  Mr.,  of  Charlestown,  67. 

Shove,  Rev.  Seth,  32. 

Shrimpton,  Mr.,  misconduct,  44. 

Shute,  Samuel,  Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts, 249,  260,  263,  268  seg.,  273. 

Sibley,  John  Langdon,  his  *'  Harvard 
Graduates,"  cited,  102,  150;  men- 
tioned, 36,  83,  105, 132, 154,  208,  238, 
298. 

Slaves, 52, 280.  5«»^ Negroes, Onesimus. 

Sleep,  Cotton  Mather's  habitual,  212, 
«.     See  Vigils. 

Small-pox,  epidemic  in  Boston,  193, 
202,  275  seg. ;  in  Cotton  Mather's 
family,  196,  277. 

Societies  for  good  purposes,  37, 68, 187, 
192,  211,  213,  248. 


320 


INDEX, 


South  Church  (Old  South,  Third 
Church  of  Boston),  30,  41,  43,  51,  80, 
152,  220  seq..^  265,  294. 

"  Spectator,"  Cotton  Mather  would 
contribute  to  the,  244,  250. 

Spectral  evidence,  97,  99.  lor,  107, 
121 ;  Cotton  Mather's  view  of,  107 
seq.t  110  seq. 

Spectres.     See  Evil  Spirits. 

Stedman  (Edmund  Clarence),  and 
Hutchinson  (Ellen  McKay),  their 
"  Library  of  American  Literature," 
310. 

StouRhton,  William,  Lieut.  Governor 
of  Massachusetts,  relations  to  witch- 
craft, 93,  103  seq.,  122  ;  relations  to 
Harvard  College,  137.  139,  i43f  M5> 

151,  152  ;  administrations,  127  seq.^ 
1301  151;  last  days  and  character, 
152. 

Studies  of  Cotton  Mather,  35  j^^.,  53 
seq-y  59,  79,  214,  23S.  See  Medicine, 
Royal  Society,  Writings  of  Cotton 
Mather. 

Style,  Cotton  Mather's  literary,  161. 

Suicide,  Cotton  Mather  tempted  to, 
206. 

Swift,  Jonathan,  229. 

Synods  in  New  England,  45. 

Tailer,  Lieut.  Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts, 249,  288. 

Temper,  Cotton  Mather's,  2,  83,  114, 
118,  153,  183  ieq ^  216,  239  seq..,  266, 
279. 

Texts  preached  from,  Cotton  Mather's 
memoranda  of,  48,  61,  11 1,  113  seq.^ 
166,  173,  182,203,  212,  231. 

Thanksgivings  of  Cotton  Mather,  50 
seq.y  61  seq.^  68,  114  seq.y  158,  166, 
188,  191,  195  seq.^  211,  214,  255, 
262. 

Theocracy  in  New  England,  9,  21,  23 
seq..,  39  seq..,  70,  79,  125,  131,  141, 

152,  282  seq..s  286.     See  Democracy. 
Thompson,    Major,   Cotton   Mather's 

anecdote  of,  250. 
Time,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of,  191. 
Tories.     See  Royalists. 
Turyl,  Ferdinando,  regenerate  old  man, 

180. 

Unitarianism,  287. 

Upham,  Charles  Wentworth,  his  '*  Sa- 
lem Witchcraft,"  cited,  290;  men- 
tioned, 93,  97,  99,  291 ;  his  view  of 
Cotton  Mather,  102,  104,  2^  seq. 

Vane,  Sir  Henry,  Governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, 23. 

Vanity,  Cotton  Mather's,  100. 

Veracity,  Cotton  Mather's,  i  seg.^  84, 
159,  161,  209. 


Verses,  addressed  to  Cotton  Mather, 
182,  203,  232;  written  by  Cotton 
Mather,  34,  55,  296. 

Vigils  of  Cotton  Mather,  123,  192,  194, 
205,  216,  240  seq. 

Visions,  of  Anne  Griffin  and  Ruth 
Weeden,  262 ;  of  Mrs.  Abigail 
Mather,  116,  196;  of  Cotton  Mather, 
63.  67,  93,  180;  of  Increase  Mather, 
28. 

Wadsworth,  Rev.  Benjamin,  Presi- 
dent of  Harvard  College,  234,  268, 
294. 

Watts,  Rev.  Dr.  Isaac,  236,  244. 

Widowhood,  Cotton  Mather's  view  of, 
202,  204,  206.     See  Marriage. 

Wilkins,  Mr,  shopkeeper,  153,  183 
seq. 

Willard,  Daniel,  son-in-law  of  Cotton 
Mather,  25S  j**^.,  262. 

Willard,  Rev.  Samuel,  of  Old  South, 
Vice-President  of  Harvard  College, 
30,  4»»  43  J^^-.  59>  80,  137  seq.,  143, 
151  seq.y  201  seq..,  220  seq. 

William  of  Orange,  75  seq.,  78,  89,  117, 
142,  191;  his  relation  to  Harvard 
College,  135,  137,  140. 

Williams,  Rev.  Mr.,  of  Deerfield,  201, 
216,  236. 

Williams,  Eunice,  captive,  236. 

Williams,  Roger,  7,  23. 

Winslow,  John,  brings  news  of  Revo- 
lution, 75. 

Winthrop,  John,  Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts, 131. 

Winthrop,  John,  Cotton  Mather's coi> 
respondence  with,  214,  238,  250. 

Winthrop,  Wait,  Cotton  Mather's  cor- 
respondence with,  238,  250. 

Wishes,  of  Cotton  Mather,  113 ;  of  In- 
crease Mather,  26,  47. 

Witchcraft,  doctrine  of,  92 ;  atWobum, 
62,  69;  at  Boston,  81,  100,  114,  118 
seq.  ;  at  Salem,  93,  98  seq.  ;  Cotton 
Mather's  relation  to,  62  seq.,  81, 
84,  88,  93,  99, 100  seq.  f  156,  290,  301  ; 
Cotton  Mather's  final  view  of,  106 
seq.t  112,  122  seq.,  155.  See  Angels, 
Calef,  Evil  Spirits,  Occultism;  c/. 
Howell,  and  p.  274. 

Writings  of  Cotton  Mather,  general 
remarks  on,  2,  64,  112,  232,  236,  298. 
Separate  works:  "  Biblia  Ameri- 
cana," 118,  160,  212,  214,  232,  238. 
"  Death  Made  Easy  and  Happy," 
remarkable  discovery  of,  190,  *'  De- 
fence of  Evangelical  Churches,"  150. 
*'  Enchiridion,"  270.  "  Essays  to 
Do  Good,"  297.  •'  Life  of  Nathan- 
iel Mather,"  81,  170.  "  Life  of  Jon- 
athan Mitchel,"  141.  "Life  of  Sir 
William  Phipps,"  108,  155,  160, 166. 


INDEX. 


321 


•*  Magnalia  Christi  Americana,"  ac- 
count of,  15S  sea. ;  Cotton  Mather's 
experiences  with,  167,  179,  186  seq.^ 
196;  cited,  3,  7  seq.^  30,  5,  81,  106, 
132,  158  j^^.  ;  mentioned,  26,  36,  45, 
84,  108,  1 1 7  seq. ,  192,  232 .  "  Order  of 
the  Gospel,"  148.  *'  Parentator,*' 
cited,  17  srq.,  24,  26  seq-t  45  •^''^  t  71 
seq.f  152,  285  sfq.\  mentioned,  74. 
77.  106,  284,  288.  "  Paterna,'* 
ated,  33  seq.t  36.   "Political  Fables," 


2  CO  n.  **  Wonders  of  the  Invisible 
World,'*  103.  Other  works  men- 
tioned, 66,  Siseq.f  100, 117,  121,  154, 
166  seq.y  173  sgq.f  178,  182,  189,  192, 
2i5i  237f  239.  244t  278,  aSo,  29s,  298. 

Yale,  Elihu,  266  seq. 

Yale  College,  foundation,  186,  248; 
name  and  character,  266  sea. ;  Cot- 
ton Mather's  relations  to,  to. ;  coo- 
versiou  of  Cutler,  282. 


MAKERS  OF  AMERICA. 


The  following  is  a  list  of  the  subjects  and  authors  so 
far  arranged  for  in  this  series.  The  volumes  will 
be  published  at  the  uniform  price  of  $l,00j  and 
will  appear  in  rapid  succession :  — 

Christopher  ColuTibus  (1436-1506),  and  the  Discov- 
ery of  the  New  World.  By  Charles  Kendall 
Adams,  President  of  Cornell  University. 

John  Winthrop  (1588-1(549),  First  Governor  of 
the   Massachusetts   Colony.     By  Rev.  Joseph   H. 

TWICHELL. 

Robert  Morris  (1734- 1806),  Superintendent  of  Finance 
under  the  Continental  Congress.  By  Prol.  WiL*  ^am 
G.  Sumner,  of  Yale  University. 

James  Edward  Oglethorpe  (1689- 1785),  and  the  Found- 
ing of  the  Georgia  Colony.  By  Henry  Bruce, 
Esq. 

John  Hughes,  D.D.  (1797-1864),  First  Archbishop  of 
New -York  :  a  Representative  American  Catholic. 
By  Henry  A.  Brann,  D.D. 

Robert  Pulton  (i 765-181 5):  His  Life  and  its  Results. 
By  Prof.  R.  H.  Thurston,  of  Cornell  University. 

Francis  BQgginson  (1587- 1630),  Puritan,  Author  of 
"  New  England's  Plantation,"  etc.  By  Thomas  W. 
Higginson. 


2  MAKERS    OF  AMERICA. 

PeUr  Stuyvesant  (i 602-1 682),  and  the  Dutch  Settle- 
ment of  New- York.  By  Bayard  Tuckerman, 
Esq.,  author  of  a  "  Life  of  General  Lafayette, " 
editor  of  the  "  Diary  of  Philip  Hone,"  etc.,  etc. 

Thomas  Hooker  (1586-1647),  Theologian,  Founder  of 
the  Hartford  Colony.  By  George  L.  Walker, 
D.D. 

Charlea  Sumner  (1811-1874),  Statesman.  By  Anna 
L.  Dawes. 

Thomas  Jefferson  (1743-1826),  Third  President  of  the 
United  States,  By  James  Schouler,  Esq.,  author 
of  "A  History  of  the  United  States  under  the 
Constitution." 

William  White  (1748-1836),  Chaplain  of  the  Continen- 
tal Congress,  Bishop  of  Pennsylvania,  President  of 
the  Convention  to  organize  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church  in  America.  By  Rev.  Julius  H.  Ward, 
with  ^n  Introduction  by  Right  Rev.  Henry  C.  Potter, 
D.D.,  Bishop  of  New- York. 

Jean  Baptiste  Lemolne.  stcur  de  Bienville  (1680-1 768), 
French  Governor  of  Louisiana,  Founder  of  New 
Orleans.  By  Grace  King,  author  of  "  Monsieur 
Motte." 

Alexander  Hamilton  (i 757-1 804),  Statesman,  Finan- 
cier, Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  By  Prof.  William 
G.  Sumner,  of  Yale  University. 

Father  Juniper  Serra  (1713- 1784),  and  the  Franciscan 
Missions  in  California.  By  John  Gilmary  Shea, 
LL.D. 

Cotton  Mather  (1663-1728),  Theologian,  Author,  Be- 
liever in  Witchcraft  and  the  Supernatural.  By  Prof. 
^      Barrett  Wendell,  of  Harvard  University. 


MAKERS    OF  AMERICA.  3 

Robert  Cavelier,  sieur  de  La  Salle  (i 643-1687),  Ex- 
plorer of  the  Northwest  and  the  Mississippi.  By 
Edward  G.  Mason,  Esq.,  President  of  the  Histori- 
cal Society  of  Chicago,  author  of  '*  Illinois**  in  the 
Commonwealth  Series. 

Thomas  Nelson  (i 738-1 789),  Governor  of  Virginia, 
General  in  the  Revolutionary  Army.  Embracing  a 
Picture  of  Virginian  Colonial  Life.  By  Thomas 
Nelson  Page,  author  of  "Mars  Chan,'*  and  other 
popular  stories. 

George  and  Cecilius  Calvert,  Barons  Baltimore  of 
Baltimore  (1605- 1676),  and  the  Founding  of  the 
Maryland  Colony.  By  William  Hand  Browne, 
editor  of  "The  Archives  of  Maryland.'* 

Sir  "William  Johnson  (171 5-1 774),  and  The  Six  Na- 
tions. By  William  Elliot  Griffis,  D.D.,  author 
of  "The  Mikado's  Empire,'*  etc.,  etc. 

Sam.  Houston  (1793- 1862),  and  the  Annexation  of 
Texas.     By  Henry  Bruce,  Esq. 

Joseph  Henry,  LL.D.  (i  797-1 878),  Savant  and  Natural 
Philosopher.     By  Frederic  H   Betts,  Esq. 

Ralph  "Waldo  Emerson.  By  Prof.  Herman  Grimm, 
author  of  "  The  Life  of  Michael  Angelo,**  "  The  Life 
and  Times  of  Goethe,"  etc. 

DODD,   MEAD,   &   COMPANY, 

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